Origins & Early Life

Richard Wayne Bandler (born 1950) is an American writer, consultant, and public speaker in the field of self-help. With John Grinder, he founded the neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) approach to psychotherapy in the 1970s. Richard Wayne Bandler was born in Teaneck, New Jersey and attended high school in Sunnyvale, California. He has stated that he was beaten as a child so badly that every bone in his body was broken.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

After his parents separated, he moved with his mother and stayed mostly in and around San Francisco. Bandler obtained a BA degree in philosophy and psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) in 1973, and an MA degree in psychology from Lone Mountain College in San Francisco in 1975. 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 (who had died in 1970). He also assisted with checking transcripts for Eye Witness to Therapy (1973).

Enduring Legacy & Impact

According to Spitzer, "[Bandler] came out of it talking and acting like Fritz Perls." While a student at UCSC, Bandler also led a Gestalt...

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