December 23, 2014

December 23, 2014

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader, 

Everyone who can speak, listen, read and write is able to discriminate Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) and Noxious  Verbal Behavior (NVB). I agree completely with B.F. Skinner that we have to stay close to the data. To stay close to the facts, we have to talk and use our writing as a means to talk more, not less. NVB is ubiquitous, because most of our writing decreases, discourages and undermines our speaking and makes it seem as if it (the written word) is more important than speaking (the spoken word) and that speaking is basically no longer needed.  However, as soon as we get to talk with each other about the great difference between SVB and NVB, our questions about how we communicate can and will be answered.

During SVB the natural effortless sound of our own voice guides us into a deeper and deeper sense of relaxation, while it stimulates our brain like nothing else can. This is completely different from t NVB, in which we remain tense, anxious,  hurried, guarded, scattered and coerced. In NVB, we aversively influence each other. Many people are going to respond and have already responded positively to SVB, because they  notice, but cannot pinpoint, the oppression that is going on in the name of our spoken communication. Unless many people know about natural science of human behavior, we have no way to analyze and describe our problem behavior (NVB) accurately and to replace it with SVB.  The only way in which SVB can and will increase, is by decreasing NVB.

SVB can replace NVB only to the extent that NVB decreases. NVB will be extinguished.  The contingency that can facilitate the shift from NVB to SVB, is one in which we focus on the behavior of the organism and not on the group. Although we focus on the individual, it will later affect the behavior of the group. The individual who shifts from NVB to SVB is only capable of doing so by temporarily dropping out of the group. After the shift has occurred, he or she will re-enter the group and become the leader of the group.  The leadership position is afforded by his or her knowledge of the SVB/NVB distinction. The leader of the group is someone who experiences that the verbalizer and the mediator are one and the same person. He or she is capable of teaching SVB.