The social panorama explores one’s social network. Human relationships play a major role in our lives, shaping us or even transforming us.

Lucas Derks extensively researched this topic, incorporating his insights into social psychology and NLP, thus enriching both fields. He suggests that most people perceive their relationships in the form of an internal “landscape,” which he calls the social panorama.

Your own person (self-image) stands in the center of this landscape. All those who play a part in your life stand around you, perceived as stable objects in the surrounding space. Depending on how you imagine them inwardly—via your internal representations—the nature of your interpersonal relationships becomes apparent. Derks uses the term personification for such internal representations to show that it is your subjective image of a person, rather than the actual person themselves.

This personal social panorama forms the starting point for our social behavior.

How This Differs from NLP Is Found in the Submodalities

Some properties among submodalities are more important than others. The distance from/to the object, the object’s size, and the object’s orientation (whether it’s facing you or not) are crucial. Because overall fewer pieces of information are considered, but in more depth, the process is simplified.

Procedure for Mapping the Social Panorama

• Have the person close their eyes.
• Ask them to think of “all the people in the world.”
• Then prompt them to focus on a single person or a specific group (family, co-workers, friends, etc.).
• Ask them: “In your mind’s eye, where exactly do you see this person or group—front, back, left, right, above, below?”
• Have them point to that spot, then open their eyes.

Key Insights of the Social Panorama

1. Relationship = Location

Most people represent family members and other important individuals as fixed points in mental space. The spatial location of these points—relative to the self—defines the relationship.
The core concept of the Social Panorama (SP) can be summarized as: Relationship = Location.

Direction and distance are apparently the most universal, decisive submodalities in social experience. We represent our social relationships in a spatial order: we see, hear, and feel others internally from specific directions and distances.

Vertical positioning (the size of other persons as compared to the self) is often directly linked to status and self-esteem. If in your social panorama, you see others as larger than yourself, you’ll likely feel subordinate, less valuable, and lower in status.

2. SP Primarily Represents Social Relationships

Once someone’s location in the social panorama is identified, the client immediately knows what that implies for their relationship. This process often surpasses words, showing that the spatial dimensions of our social representations are highly significant.

Using a computer metaphor, you could call the SP our “social operating system.” It describes social constructions, one’s social identity—expressed in proximity and distance, belonging and non-belonging to social groups.

3. Changing the SP Can Be Done in Two Ways

• By shifting personifications in mental space
• By adding resources

An important presupposition in the social panorama is that once a personification is integrated into someone’s worldview, it cannot be removed.

Process (modified from Lucas Derks)

1. Verbalize the Structure of the Problem/Topic

Questions to clarify the topic:

• Who or what definitely belongs here?
• How are these relationships set up?
• What’s the dynamic between them?
• What is the broader context?

The coach reconstructs the topic until the client agrees with it.

2. Map the Topic as a Social Panorama

• The client directs attention inward, into their “inner space” or “internal psycho-geography.”
• This space is initially empty.
• The client then populates this inner space with the individuals or elements involved.

Questions for Visualization:

• Who/what stands where, exactly?
• How high or low is each position?
• What is their orientation or direction of gaze?
• How do these people/elements appear in detail?
• What are the submodalities?
• How do you represent the space between these people/elements?

3. Build a Solution Space

• The coach uses the Miracle Question.
• “If a miracle happened, who/what would be where?”
• “How did you get there?”
• “Which resources are needed so that these people/elements can occupy these positions?”

4. Ecology and Transfer

• What are the advantages of the old positioning?
• What disadvantages might the new positioning have?

Final question to solidify the solution:
“If a relapse occurs, how long will it take until the solution is in place again?”