October 18, 2016

October 18, 2016

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader,

We get upset by someone who points out to us how we talk because of punishment. Whenever our attention was brought to how we speak, we have had a negative experience. Whether we are willing or capable of admitting this or not, most of us were unfortunately raised with more Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) than Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB).

Punishment is overemphasized and reinforcement is getting short shrift. Punitive, coercive, negative NVB dominates every conversation and is continuously reinforced, while sensitive, intelligent, practical and effective positive SVB is constantly punished, rejected and ridiculed.

We don’t want any more punishment and every time someone stops our forceful way of talking, we become more determined to have our way. Only a skillful and knowledgeable verbal engineer like me is capable of circumventing our NVB conditioning. I don’t claim to be able to change people at once, but I definitely can and will change them over time.

It is my joy to be able to change people and I will continue to do this. My writing, which includes many failures, is reinforced by my overall success. I get a kick out of creating better behavior in people. I know that often I don’t get to see or hear it, but I know that it happens.

I can only do so much, but what I do is what I am capable of.  I am always surprised to find I have achieved more than I thought I did. I trust that this writing will stimulate and inspire people to find out what I mean with the SVB/NVB distinction. There is so much to be achieved by SVB and we will be so relieved to have stopped NVB. It is possible.