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Richard Bandler
Review by Dave Allaway

Target audience: NLPers, or aspirant NLPers, though it would be perfectly suitable for the layperson too. Out of print, but possible to get hold of on the internet and well worth paying up to $50 for.

Summary of content: 'Who's Driving the Bus?', a great Bandlerism to start us on the journey through his submodality-based view on 'running your own brain'. There are nine chapters beginning with a critique of some of Bandler's pet hates - psychologists and therapists - and his suggestions for improving upon their work. Then follows eight chapters that develop submodality work from basic play through to his original version of the "Swish" pattern.

There are appendices but only one is useful - that which outlines some of the usual submodality distinctions. The others are just marketing devices peddling his audio and video tapes, and the names of a couple of his buddies. Unfortunately, as is often the case with NLP books, the bibliography is not actually useful for delving deeper into the subject matter of the book, but it is a catalogue of Real People Press titles, a company that, oddly enough, has some connection with Bandler himself. So another marketing tool then.

There is an index which has some use.

Recommended features: Whatever else he may be, Bandler can write an entertaining and easy to follow, sequential book that really can help people to develop skills. I think that this is a book that is better to return to after some NLP training, but it is an entertaining and informative play-text, nevertheless.

In the contents, each chapter has its own synopsis which is a very helpful aid to navigating around the book.

Personal impressions: A top read that I have read, cover-to-cover, six times, and dipped into on many other occasions. Why do I bother to do this? Because Bandler, in this book, writes in a very entertaining way that has informed my own training of some of the concepts within the book. As a style to model, it is extremely useful.

One of the lovely aspects of this book is that it presents a Bandler without much of the acid bitterness that comes across in some of his later texts, and in many of his video tapes. He manages to use humour without anger: 'People spend more time learning how to use a food processor than they do learning how to use their brains.' (p.9). And he reveals that rare and beautiful aspect to his weird nature on occasions: 'Everything a human being can do is an achievement, depending only on where, and when, and for what, it is utilised.' (p.158)

This book is of no use to academics. (Bandler says "Yeah!").This book is of great use to NLPers (Bandler says "Yeah!").I actually think that it is a shame that he doesn't attempt to support his work with evidence beyond his own story-telling style which can be, at times, inaccurate, if not apocryphal.

Nevertheless, get hold of a copy of this book, treasure it, NEVER lend it to a friend who may leave it in the pocket of an aeroplane seat, and absorb its lessons.

Dave Allaway
November 2004