Frogs into Princes (1979) is the first-ever comprehensive book on Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). It's a seminar transcript [or "trance"-script, to be punny (since its co-founder Richard Bandler is also a hypnotist)] that was edited and published by John Stevens [a.k.a. Steve Andreas, who studied under Abe Maslow (hierarchy-of-needs) and Fritz Perls (founder of gestalt therapy)].
It's so well organized and presented, together with a detailed introduction, that you feel like you're a part of the live-audience. This leads to the paradoxical problem of reading the book too casually, similarly to passively watching a performance, as opposed to treating it as the actual manual of techniques and profound concepts that it really is (which are based on extensive research that began in 1973). The paradox is that that's exactly how the authors (Bandler and John Grinder) want you to read it - because you learn more, as they tell you, subconsciously - without attempting to consciously analyze or memorize the (otherwise overwhelming) new terminology and ideas. Ideally, you should re-read the whole book immediately after you're done with your initial reading, so you could finally completely understand the proper attitude and approach that the authors are trying to instill within you (yes, you must read it twice).
NLP is not a household name as such - whereas, its most famous teacher, for example, is: Tony Robbins, who was trained by co-founder Grinder [pronounced as in "grin", not "grind"]; it also is the scientific foundation of popular TV shows like "Lie to Me", which exemplify how to read subtle "eye accessing-cues" (and other body-language) found throughout Frogs Into Princes. As they write (on page 47): "Eye movements and body movements will give you information about process. The proper domain, in our opinion, of professional communicators is process. If you indulge in content, you are going to unavoidably impose part of your belief and value system on the people you communicate with. The kinds of problems that people have, usually have nothing to do with content; they have to do with structure, the form of how they organize their experience."
Bandler and Grinder say (on page 9): "Our job is to figure out what it is that effective therapists do intuitively or unconsciously, and to make up some rules that can be taught to someone else." They have done a phenomenal job of that over the years. In addition to educating you, they will also humor you - as in the following interspersed witticisms:
(page 9): "[Academics] are not interested in the real world, and having lived in it I can sometimes understand why."
(page 32): "You can't even spell 'phonetics' phonetically!"
(page 114): "...remembering to breathe; oxygen is essential for this whole process."
(page 166): "It's important for some people to have the illusion that their conscious mind controls their behavior. It's a particularly virulent form of insanity among college professors, psychiatrists, and lawyers."
Towards the end (page 190) of this pioneering 194-page book, they ask rhetorically "How can I make things really groovy?" - which is the above title of my review [that you've probably noticed at the subconscious level, right?] - after which they proceed to briefly discuss the limitless potential within NLP for "generative" change.
For those of you who might only want the latest, condensed, quick-and-easy, "self-help" version of NLP, I highly recommend Bandler's "Get the Life You Want" (2008). That one, you don't have to go over twice - and you could use it as a "pocket-guide", too. Frogs Into Princes - and especially, The Structure of Magic (vol. 1: 1975 & vol. 2: 1976) - is intended more for researchers or serious students of NLP.
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Top reviews from other countries
Gerard H
Highest quality of a 'used'/second' book I could possible hope to purchase.
Reviewed in Canada on December 15, 2021
Harwender Pal
Good book to change how you think
Reviewed in India on March 18, 2022
Miguel García
A masterpiece by Grinder and Bandler
Reviewed in Spain on March 17, 2018Tammi
originally bought as an introduction to nlp which is good, cannot say nothing bad about it but personally ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 7, 2015
