Richard Wayne Bandler (born 1950) is an American writer, consultant, and public speaker in the field of
self-help
Self-help or self-improvement is "a focus on self-guided, in contrast to professionally guided, efforts to cope with life problems" —economically, physically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis.
When ...
. With
John Grinder, he founded the
neuro-linguistic programming
Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a Pseudoscience, pseudoscientific approach to communication, personal development, and psychotherapy that first appeared in Richard Bandler and John Grinder's book ''The Structure of Magic I'' (1975). NLP ...
(NLP) approach to psychotherapy in the 1970s, which is considered
pseudoscience
Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable cl ...
.
Early life and education
Richard Wayne Bandler was born in
Teaneck, New Jersey
Teaneck () is a Township (New Jersey), township in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a bedroom community in the New York metropolitan area. The town is know for their pancake throwing contest held ...
and attended high school in
Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States.
Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real (California), El Camino Real and U.S. Route 101 in California, Highway 1 ...
.
He has stated that he was beaten as a child so badly that every bone in his body was broken. After his parents separated, he moved with his mother and stayed mostly in and around San Francisco. Bandler obtained a
BA degree in
philosophy
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
and
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
from the
University of California, Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...
(UCSC) in 1973, and an
MA degree in psychology from
Lone Mountain College in San Francisco in 1975.
Neuro-linguistic programming
Bandler helped publisher Robert S. Spitzer (of Science and Behavior Books, Inc.) edit ''The Gestalt Approach'' (1973) based on a manuscript by gestalt therapist
Fritz Perls
Friedrich Salomon Perls (July 8, 1893 – March 14, 1970), better known as Fritz Perls, was a German-born psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and psychotherapist. Perls coined the term "Gestalt therapy" to identify the form of psychotherapy that he devel ...
(who had died in 1970). He also assisted with checking transcripts for ''Eye Witness to Therapy'' (1973). According to Spitzer, "
andlercame out of it talking and acting like Fritz Perls."
While a student at UCSC, Bandler also led a
Gestalt therapy
Gestalt therapy is a form of psychotherapy that emphasizes Responsibility assumption, personal responsibility and focuses on the individual's experience in the present moment, the therapist–client relationship, the environmental and social c ...
group.
John Grinder, a professor at the University, said to Bandler that he could explain almost all the questions and comments Bandler made using
transformational grammar
In linguistics, transformational grammar (TG) or transformational-generative grammar (TGG) was the earliest model of grammar proposed within the research tradition of generative grammar. Like current generative theories, it treated grammar as a sys ...
. Grinder's specialty was in linguistics. Together, they created what they called a ''therapist training group''. This was the basis for their first book, ''The Structure of Magic'' (1975). Bandler and Grinder claim to have later codified some of the foundational models for
neuro-linguistic programming
Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a Pseudoscience, pseudoscientific approach to communication, personal development, and psychotherapy that first appeared in Richard Bandler and John Grinder's book ''The Structure of Magic I'' (1975). NLP ...
in part by studying the methods of
Milton Erickson
Milton Hyland Erickson (5 December 1901 – 25 March 1980) was an American psychiatrist and psychologist specializing in medical hypnosis and family therapy. He was the founding president of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis. He is not ...
and
Virginia Satir
Virginia Satir (June 26, 1916 – September 10, 1988) was an American author, clinical social worker and psychotherapist, recognized for her approach to family therapy. Her pioneering work in the field of family reconstruction therapy honored h ...
.
Murder trial and acquittal
In 1986, Corine Ann Christensen (December 8, 1954 – November 3, 1986), a former girlfriend of Bandler's friend and cocaine dealer, James Marino, was shot dead in her
Santa Cruz townhouse with a .357 magnum owned by Bandler. Authorities charged Bandler with her murder. Bandler testified that he had been at Christensen's house, but that Marino had shot Christensen. After a short deliberation, a jury found Bandler not guilty.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bandler, Richard
1950 births
Living people
American hypnotists
American male non-fiction writers
American people acquitted of murder
American self-help writers
Neuro-linguistic programming writers
University of California, Santa Cruz alumni
Writers from Teaneck, New Jersey