December 27, 2013

December 27, 2013

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Behaviorist

Dear Reader, 

In Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) it may happen that we don’t know what we are going to say, but in Noxious Verbal Behavior(NVB) such moments are avoided like the plague and we say things even when we have nothing to say. This writing is about SVB and about what makes it possible. If speakers can’t be okay with not knowing what to say, they can’t have SVB. The author knows that his inspiration to write about SVB comes from being silent. During these moments of silence nobody is steering the conversation. Silence is a fundamental part of the conversation in SVB, but it is made impossible during NVB.  

The peacefulness of our public speech is not caused by the peacefulness of our private speech. There is no such thing as the inner agent that is causing our behavior. It is exactly the opposite: the calmness of our covert self-talk is always caused by the calmness of our overt speech. In other words, in SVB we are capable of aligning private self-talk with public speech. Without alignment we can’t help but communicate a state of constant anxiety. NVB, which also isn’t caused by the unrest presumably felt by our inner self, is caused by the interaction in which public speech excludes private speech. The energy-generating effect of SVB can occur, because there is no imaginary boundary separating inner and outer, private and public speech. Due to our experience of alignment of private self-talk with our public speech speakers are genuine and able to say things which they weren’t capable of saying when this alignment couldn’t be there. In SVB we are no longer burdened by the notion that we are responsible for what we are saying. 

The falsehood that the speaker is responsible for what the listener will understand sets the stage for NVB. The concept of responsibility, which always assumes the existence of some inner decision maker, causes nothing but problems for those who are teaching and those who are being taught. Learning and teaching are not two different phenomena, but as long as they are perceived as such, both will be impaired. That the student is able to understand the teacher is neither caused by the teacher nor by the student. The understanding is caused by how they communicate together, bySVB. Likewise, misunderstanding is caused by NVB, by communication that separates. 

During SVB it is clear that understanding is neither caused nor experienced by an inner agent. The ongoing interaction of SVB replaces our emphasis on memory. This author is convinced that memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease is preceded by years of impaired communication. Also, he has found in his work with the elderly that SVB has a remarkable restorative effect on those who are already impaired. In addition, mental health patients with any type of diagnosis achieved a sense of integration due to only minutes of SVB. Interestingly, those who suffer the most, are most open to experiment with SVB and subsequently experience the biggest effects. This author worked in lock-down psychiatric wards where twenty four patients were hospitalized because they were in a severe mental health crises. If SVB has such beneficial effects on people who are considered to be a danger to themselves or others, one can imagine what would happen if normal people would experiment with SVB. If  SVB brings normalcy back to those who experience mental health problems, then these afflictions can be prevented. SVB is the royal path to mental health. The lack of SVB and the presence of NVB results in problems which can be avoided if we investigate how environments cause behaviors.