A friend has lent us a pdf file: Letters to a Desperate Stutterer . He was sent it by a "friend from AIS". Nothing new. Our belief system, our thoughts, perception and emotions- certainly play a role. But Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) is not the only or the most effiecint way of dealing with them. We would rather recommend Vipassana, Brahmavidya, and other spiritual practices, akin to our upbringing and culture than NLP consisting of "Positive prior intentional framing" and such 'magic' tricks! For two very practical reasons: Vipassana is free and is easier to understand and implement, than NLP.

Of course we accept the old paradigm- as many people, so many paths. There are many paths leading into the bog called stuttering- and there are many paths leading out of it. But we do want to warn our readers that many of these paths have a price tag: $29.95 CAD (Rs 1300). Not just this book - but there is a plethora of pdf books, DVDs, computer based fluency programs for home use etc. etc. - but all with a price tag- and virtually no recourse to refund if you are not satisfied. Why? because we, the stammeres, are a despearte lot! To help desperate stutteres locate their product easily the website itself is named: www.desperatestutterer.com !!

Instead of reviewing it ourselves, we just wish to share some excerpts from a very good reveiw at  Canadian Stuttering Association. Here are excerpts:

While “Letters...” offers some good ideas, many of Linda's conclusions are spurious at best –overly simplistic and judgemental.

Another thing that perturbs me about “Letters...” is the price. $29.95 CAD for a downloadable pdf is exorbitant. (I refuse to call it a “book” as Bob Bodenhamer does, as it is more like a “paper” or “document”). Thirty bucks is more than I pay for most stuff I order from Amazon or Chapters –  real bound books delivered to my door. Contrary to the raves for the writing in the foreword, “Letters...” is competent, but not excellent, and sometimes not even that. At 151 pages the paper suffers from a gross lack of selectivity, and a good editor could pare this tome down to 50.

Yet in one sense the message of “Letters...” is one we could all take to heart: to be aggressive in our own treatment and recovery, whatever we are doing. Often we are too passive, waiting for instruction from therapists, aiming to please during sessions but faltering when we have to rely on our own motivation – because our hearts were never really in it.

Read the complete reveiw here. As someone said at stuttering forum:

"A desperate stutterer and his money is easily parted...be warned people..."