Book Review: "The New Psycho-Cybernetics" by Maxwell Maltz, M.D.

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The primary theme of this book is the individual's self image, the ways in which the self-image, and the natural tendency to conform to the self-image, either creates limiting beliefs that hinder an individual from true success, or makes it easier to adjust to new habits. The analysis is told through the lens of the author, Dr. Maxwell Maltz, who started his career as a plastic surgeon. In his career as a plastic surgeon, he saw many people who had great deformities acquired by means of some horrible accident, or some terrible birth defect. Applying corrective surgery to these individuals generally led to a massive change in attitude on their part, and simultaneously a genuine and lasting improvement in his clients' quality of living.

He noticed other groups of people who get similar scars on their faces but instead it boosts confidence, rather than harming it. The example the author gave was a group of fencing students at a prestigious university, who wore their initial sabre-scars as a badge of honor. The author noticed a third group who would come into his office demanding surgery for a trifling detail of their appearance, whilst exaggerating the nature of their own defect way out of proportion. After recieving the surgery these individuals would not notice a difference, even if they admitted that a change had been made. These three distinct reactions that a person can have to the same scar led the author to believe that the area of significance laid not in the person's physical appearance, but in the person's self-image. This begins his examination of the collection of tools and attitudes that he calls "Psycho-Cybernetics."

The name itself is a reference to another book (which I'm hoping to read soon), titled "Cybernetics: or the Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine" by Norbert Wiener, the man who invented the ServoMechanism. The book insists that humans have an internal servomechanism that assists in goal-striving, as well as maintaining the standards of the self image. One example given is that of a salesperson who no matter what territory he was assigned, would always make $5000 per year (when the book was first written the dollar was significantly more valuable). However, it also cites the servomechanism for processes like calling forth old memories, as well as idea generation. In this way, the servomechanism analogy bleeds over into the analogy of the Roman Genius (or the Greek Daemon), or more modern conceptions of one's 'higher self,' which is based on the phenomenological observation that whatever within you generates ideas and contains the skills you've mastered is not your conscious self, but more like a genie that can be called upon.

The actionable part of the book comes in the use of visualization techniques. The book suggests a series of visualization techniques to be done depending on the aspect of your life you wish to improve. If there is a part of your personality that you want to change, visualize yourself for 30 minutes a day as the person you want to be, and then act that out. If you want to improve at a given skill, visualize yourself performing the skill properly, in addition to physical practice. Instead of saying "I'm fat", say "I'm usually thin. It is unnatural for me to be at X weight. I'm a person who diets and exercises because I love my body and wish to maintain it." The argument the book presents is that doing this practice will make it easier to follow through on a better set of habits, as the servomechanism adjusts and tries make you in accordance with your new self-image.

The book gives other suggestions as well, but a large portion of it is dedicated to justifying the servomechanism analogy and giving reasons as to why Psycho-Cybernetics works. If you are looking only for the practical tools, it will be a much shorter read.

Thanks to this book I am now starting to use daily affirmations, in the hopes that this will help me improve portions of my personality. I already have a set of goals that I write down daily, that are phrased as if I already achieved them. I will share some of my affirmations here:

• I am extremely well organized.
• I get to work easily.
• I always finish my projects.
• I finish my projects on time.
• If I fall behind, then I catch up.
• I make a schedule every day.
• If I haven't already made a schedule for today, I will do it as soon as I'm done with these affirmations.
• I always do the work I set out for myself.

I would like to call your attention to one thing my affirmations have in common: they deal with what I do, not with an outcome. Hopefully this means I can provide additional reinforcement by acting out the things that I said. For instance, I usually write my schedule immediately after I finish my affirmations. All in all, I found the book useful enough to go through twice, although the jury is still out over whether this practice is improving my long-term performance. When I see major improvements, I will make a point to mention them elsewhere. I hope you enjoy this book.

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