October 5, 2016

October 5, 2016 

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader,

The distinction between Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB) and Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB) provides those who know about it with optimal control over spoken communication. Without the SVB/NVB distinction no such control is possible. Those who are familiar with this distinction acknowledge that NVB, or forceful control, signifies a lack of control.

People have high rates of NVB because they lack the skills to have SVB. Coercive speech is based on the old saying: if you only have a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. SVB is a non-coercive way of talking. It is a refinement most people will never learn as nobody is able to teach it. As far as I know, I am the only one who can teach it.

SVB can only be taught by someone who knows about the SVB/NVB distinction. Such a person always takes a listener’s perspective and differentiates between when a speaker speaks with him or her or at him or her; the former is SVB, the latter is NVB. Most of us think the conditions of spoken communication cannot be controlled, but they are already controlled. Our social hierarchy mediates high rates of NVB.

Our low rates of SVB are explained by the fact that high rates of SVB would dissolve all our hierarchical differences. Those who continue to dominate others with NVB deny that increase of SVB this is possible, but those who acknowledged the disastrous consequences of NVB, rejoice every time when SVB is prolonged. It wasn’t until I became a teacher and a therapist that I was able to create the situation in which SVB was increased and the SVB/NVB distinction fully appreciated.

As a psychology teacher and therapist I explain to my students and clients the SVB/NVB distinction. They love it; SVB sets the stage for learning about psychology and therapy. It wouldn’t make any sense to teach classes or give therapy with NVB. Yet, students and clients tell me other teachers and therapists teach and give therapy with NVB.

Teachers and therapists, like parents, can only pass on to others what they themselves know. A lot of harm is done in the name of parenting, teaching and therapy and is covered up by NVB. It is only once we have SVB that we realize what we have been through. During SVB a person finds his or her voice and begins to create his or her own narrative.

Only in circumstances in which it is stimulated will SVB occur. Under such positive circumstances we develop optimal control over our own and each other’s behavior. We may not like to hear this,, but whether we know it or not our behavior is controlled. The unaddressed question is whether we are going to continue on the path of effortful, coercive behavioral control or of effortless, positive behavioral control?

In NVB we practice effortful, punitive behavioral control, but in SVB we engage in effortless, positive behavioral control. As everyone who knows about the SVB/NVB has recognized, SVB is more effective and more intelligent than NVB. Effective education and implementation of the science of human behavior goes together with a new way of talking.

NVB is ineffective as it is doesn’t stimulate or allow novel experiences. In NVB we mechanically repeat the same behavior. Psycho-pathology is a person’s inability to learn new behavior, but if a person is differently stimulated, with SVB instead of NVB, he or she will be able to learn.

With SVB we will have happy relationships and new experiences. Things are possible with SVB which are impossible with NVB. SVB guides us into an enchanting way of life. We will be hopeful about our future. Our societies will change as we learn to address and overcome our problems.