December 24, 2013

December 24, 2013 

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Behaviorist

Dear Reader, 

 

Once people have experienced SVB, they would like to retain it and ask for ways to remember it. They request a step by step plan, a hand-out with bullet points, an acronym, anything that will help them to continue this new way of interacting. What they often fail to recognize is what made possible the experience of SVB with this author lies in their own behavioral history. They were willing to try it and capable of doing it, because of similarities in their history of reinforcement. SVB is a reinforcing activity because it focuses our attention on the here and now. This confronts us with a challenge, because it seems to prevent us from thinking about our future. 

As we shall see, SVB doesn’t prevent us from anything, but an emphasized focus on the here and now is to be expected and is necessary in its initial phases. Because we have been deprived while we speak of our subjective here and now experiences, we have a need to catch up with this. And, even before this need is fully satisfied, it is apparent that the here and now experiences of SVB only make sense to the extent that they will be carried on by us with others into our future. Our inability to envision this causes us great distress. Since distress is part of NVB, it can only teach us about when we don’t or can’t have SVB. To have SVB, we must be without stress or any other negative emotions. 

It is unrealistic to expect long-term effects from brief versions of SVB for those who have reinforcement histories that make even  brief exposures highly unlikely. This author, who has experimented with thousands of individuals, has found, to his own surprise, that there is only very little difference between those who are willing to experiment and those who aren’t. The former are usually very good at creating the impression of SVB. As the author wanted others to  understand SVB, he was often unaware about the extent to which he was the one, who was facilitating the SVB to them. He no longer tries to point out SVB to those who don't want to experiment. This made him realize that they produced SVB at the  same rate as those who were willing to do the experiment. He found that the people who have the behavioral histories, due to which they are willing to experiment with SVB, produce just as much SVB as those who refuse such an experiment and who don’t see the need for it at all.  

  

This is how far we have come with our approximation of SVB. The rate is as low as it is, because most of us are pretenders, who, based our behavioral histories of verbal acrobatics and coercion, are only capable of impressing or intimidating others. The few people who comprehend SVB are unable to change the way we communicate. Even their histories of reinforcement won’t allow it. They may want SVB, but they only want it for instant gratification. 

Although it is true that some of us are more open than others, the author wants his readers to understand that with regard to SVB we are all in the same boat. Some of us may have received more love and care, but that never resulted in SVB. It just couldn’t. To the contrary, the more love there was when we were young, the more likely we will become embittered about our inability to change the world which is not what we would like it to be.  

  

Reinforcement for the fact that we can’t change the world is as needed as reinforcement for the fact that we can‘t change our selves. Our inner agent, which supposedly is causing our behavior, is helpless about the world in which so much seems to be wrong and needs to be changed. However, in SVB we are not  trying to change ourselves nor the world. In SVB we transform because we are done trying to change things. Changes in SVB become possible because of our environmental perspective.  

Our behavior is caused by our environment, but this happens over time. Contrast between a temporal and a momentary view of SVB is important for its continuation. The momentary view, although necessary and exciting, can not sustain SVB in the long run. The momentary view inevitably leads to many frustrations because its immediate, albeit positive, effects will distract us from recognizing what is needed to continue with SVB over an extended period of time, with as many people as possible. This is not going to come from a manual, but from more opportunity for SVB interaction.