4. Part 3: Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP - Human): The Psychological Decoder & Empowerment for Insomniacs
The Cognitive Shield for Sleep: Protecting Insomniacs from Undue Influence in the Self-Help Industry
While NLP (AI) serves as our broad-spectrum scanner for the sleep industry, NLP (Human) acts as our psychological scalpel, allowing us to deeply understand how individual insomniacs become susceptible to manipulation and, crucially, how to build their intrinsic resilience against misleading sleep gurus. This discipline moves beyond digital patterns to the subtle nuances of human thought, emotion, and communication surrounding the experience of sleeplessness.
4.1. Foundations of NLP (Human) for Insomniac Protection: A Lacanian Lens
NLP, in its human-centric form, is a framework for understanding subjective experience, communication, and behavioral patterns. Its core concepts, originally developed for personal change and therapy, can be inverted to dissect manipulative tactics used by sleep gurus and foster psychological autonomy for insomniacs. To deepen this understanding, we integrate key concepts from Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, which offers a profound framework for the unconscious structures that govern our desires, language, and relationship to reality, especially when sleep is profoundly lacking.
· Core Concepts in Protection (with Lacanian Integration for Sleep):
o Representational Systems (VAKOG): How insomniacs predominantly perceive and process information about their sleep and its solutions through their five senses.
Lacanian Insight: While VAKOG describes conscious processing, the overload or targeted manipulation of these senses can bypass the Symbolic, pushing the sleep-deprived subject into a state of Imaginary identification with an ideal sleeper image or overwhelming them with the unfiltered impact of the Real of their suffering, where critical thought is suspended. Gurus saturate the sensory field (e.g., vivid imagery of perfect sleep, soothing sounds, testimonials describing profound physical relief) to short-circuit the speaking subject and appeal to their lack.
o Meta-Programs: Unconscious filters that dictate how individuals pay attention to the world, make decisions, and are motivated (e.g., Towards/Away From, Internal/External Reference). For insomniacs, these are often skewed by desperation.
Lacanian Insight: Meta-programs can be understood as expressions of the insomniac’s relationship to the Other’s desire and their desperate position within a fragmented Symbolic order of sleep. For example, a strong “Away From” motivation (from sleeplessness) combined with an “External Reference” meta-program makes them highly vulnerable to gurus who present themselves as the authoritative “Big Other” on sleep, offering an immediate escape from the Real of their anxiety and a quick resolution to their lack. Their motivations are tied to the fundamental drive for jouissance (towards the ecstasy of sleep) or the avoidance of lack (away from the pain of sleeplessness).
o Values & Beliefs: The deep-seated motivators and personal truths that guide an insomniac’s life, especially their beliefs about their ability to sleep and the nature of sleep itself.
Lacanian Insight: Values (e.g., “health,” “control,” “peace”) are often constituted in the Symbolic, reflecting societal norms and the desires of the “Big Other.” Limiting beliefs (”I’ll never sleep again,” “my brain is broken”) can be seen as symptomatic responses to unresolved aspects of the Real (chronic suffering) or misrecognitions within the Imaginary (”I am a defective sleeper”). Gurus target these values by re-signifying them within their own distorted Symbolic system, offering a false promise of completeness (”My method will restore your natural values for sleep”).
o Internal Strategies: The unconscious sequence of mental steps a person goes through to achieve an outcome (e.g., making a decision, falling asleep, feeling hopeful). For insomniacs, these strategies are often chaotic and ineffective.
Lacanian Insight: These strategies are often attempts to navigate the fundamental lack of sleep and structure their desire for it. Gurus learn these ineffective strategies to derail them, offering a shortcut to resolution that bypasses the necessary Symbolic work of healthy sleep practices, replacing it with a rigid, guru-imposed protocol.
o Rapport: The process of building trust and connection. Manipulative sleep gurus master this to gain entry into an insomniac’s vulnerable state; we use it to build ethical trust in educational contexts for genuine help.
Lacanian Insight: Manipulative rapport in the sleep industry often operates primarily at the Imaginary level, creating an illusory sense of mirrored understanding and perfect identification between guru and insomniac (”I understand your suffering because I’ve been there!”). This bypasses the necessary linguistic work of the Symbolic, which would allow for critical distance and evaluation of credentials or scientific basis.
o Pacing & Leading: Mirroring an insomniac’s current state (pacing their frustration, anxiety, and desperation) to build rapport, then subtly guiding them towards a desired new state (leading them to believe in their “cure”).
Lacanian Insight: Coercive pacing and leading often involve the guru expertly mirroring the insomniac’s Imaginary position (pacing their fantasy of perfect sleep or their anxiety of sleeplessness) and then subtly leading them into a distorted Symbolic order (the guru’s unproven methodology) or towards a false promise of jouissance (instant, effortless sleep).
o Anchoring: Associating a strong emotional state (e.g., fear of sleeplessness, hope for a cure) with a specific stimulus (e.g., the guru’s name, their product). Manipulators create negative anchors around conventional treatments and positive anchors for their own solutions.
Lacanian Insight: Manipulative anchoring can link the trauma of the Real (e.g., the terror of sleeplessness, past treatment failures) to the guru’s chosen signifiers, creating intense aversion to other methods or intense attraction to their own, which bypasses Symbolic analysis. We aim to detach these links and re-anchor positive, Symbolic resources like evidence-based practices.
o Reframing: Changing the meaning of an event or statement by changing the frame through which it is perceived. Gurus reframe insomnia and its solutions; we teach critical reframing.
Lacanian Insight: Manipulative reframing seeks to impose the guru’s Symbolic orderon the insomniac’s reality, often by providing a “master signifier” (e.g., “sleep detox,” “mind-body connection”) that redefines all other terms within a closed system. Critical reframing involves reclaiming the power of language within a more open, diverse Symbolic field that includes scientific consensus and individual agency.
This is a series of articles developing the concept of The Cognitive Shield, as a system / free open source AI APP for analysis and protection from undue influence, coercion, and manipulation. Utilising Natural Language Processing technology, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, and Behavioural Economics through a Lacanian Psychoanalytic lens. Basically, the areas I have studied, applied to, and developed throughout my career.
The three lenses are
I am utilising Ai to help me develop the concepts and expand the lenses I am intending to deliver faster results that can help move the narrative of protection from undue influence, coercive persuasion, and manipulation along in a new era.
This will then be adapted and rewritten to be turned into a book. All subscribers to this Substck and members of InsomniaSocial.com (the social, creative and entertainment community I am trying to build away from normal social) and our private Insomnia Chat and Support Facebook group at the time of release will be sent a link to obtain a free digital copy of the book, which will be valid for a set period of time.