Product reviews for Social Panoramas

I -˜ll be honest, I found this a difficult book to get into. Perhaps the 361 pages of text was daunting and perhaps I did what the author, Lucas Derks, has discussed in the book “I perceived the topic was larger and more heavy going than I had hoped for and so my perception was slanted to it being “too big therefore too hard.”

Just as well I persevered as I carried out some of the techniques the author provided and found the topic to be fascinating and well worth reading about. In fact, it has influenced the work I do with clients already.

This book is about spatial perception. How we perceive self, individuals, family, groups, religion/spirituality and authority figures in relation to our position in the world. One -˜s social panorama.

A recent client, when asked what he valued, totally disregarded “selfand when this was drawn to his attention, his right hand went down and behind him as he located where “selfwas in his “map -˜. I -˜ve asked him to move “selfup to where he had strong warm feelings about “familyand I -˜ll be interested to know if he becomes more caring of himself as a result of this perceptual shift.

Many therapeutic interventions for increasing the self-confidence are indirectly aimed at increasing the intensity of the “feeling of self -˜. In this way therapists can quickly learn the non-verbal distinguishers of a weak “kinaesthetic selffrom a strong one. Popularly put, a strong “feeling of selfis accompanied by an increase in personal magnetism and presence.”

“It is prudent, when carrying out interventions in the unconscious social cognition, to take into account the superior intelligence of the cognitive subconscious. Because of this great intelligence it is not necessary to induce a trance specifically in order to communicate with it (Lankton and Lankton,1983)”...just close your eyes-¦' is usually enough.”

“Assume that every suggestion that the client has understood has already been followed and has been translated into changed constructions of meaning. In short, the social unconscious can deal much faster with much more information than the therapist may expect, and it acts on it at once.”

This is hypnosis, this is counselling, this is psychotherapy, this is NLP. What a lovely mixed bag of techniques and concepts to draw on.

Problems that a client may have such as submissiveness, a negative self-image, when someone needs more empowerment in a situation, neutralising feelings of hatred and diagnosing problematic family relationships are covered with techniques provided by the author that the client can be guided through.

When looking at family patterns, the author looks at three different categories “Universal, Collective and Personal family panorama patterns. He gives examples that illustrate this concept.



All in all, there is a lot in here both for the reader and the client. Creating an adjustment of one -˜s social panorama and one -˜s relative position in that panorama can create a whole new configuration and therefore a whole new way of being, affecting our thinking and our behavior. Not a book to be skimmed through, rather one to be savoured and digested.