Richard Bandler

Richard Wayne Bandler (born February 24, 1950) is an American author and trainer in the field of self-help. He is best known as the co-creator (with John Grinder) of Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), a methodology to understand and change human behavior-patterns. He also developed other systems named Design Human Engineering (DHE) and Neuro Hypnotic Repatterning (NHR).

Education and background

Born in Teaneck, New Jersey, where he spent the first five years of his life, before moving to California and various other places where his parents shifted. 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 in 1973, and an MA degree in psychology from Lone Mountain College in San Francisco in 1975.

Co-founding of Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)

Bandler helped Robert Spitzer 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). According to Spitzer, "[Bandler] came out of it talking and acting like Fritz Perls."