Psycho-Cybernetics

"Man is by nature a goal-striving being. And because man is 'built that
way' he is not happy unless he is functioning as he was made to function—
as a goal-striver. Thus true success and true happiness not only go
together but each enhances the other."
"Insofar as function is concerned, the brain and nervous system constitute
a marvelous and complex 'goal-striving mechanism,' a sort of builtin
automatic guidance system which works for you as a 'success
mechanism,' or against you as a 'failure mechanism,' depending on
how 'YOU,' the operator, operate it and the goals you set for it."

According to the non-profit Psycho-Cybernetics Foundation,
worldwide sales of this book, including the editions of five US
publishers and the many foreign translations issued since 1960,
exceed 25 million copies.
This huge readership alone would make the book worth investigating,
but it becomes an enigma when you appreciate that Dr. Maltz
never became famous in the way that Dale Carnegie or Norman
Vincent Peale did. What was it that drew people to this unremarkablelooking
paperback?
What is cybernetics?
The word comes from the Greek for "steersman," and in the modern
sense usually refers to systems of control and communication in
machines and animals; how, for instance, a computer or a mouse organizes
itself to achieve a task. Maltz applied the science to humans to
form psycho-cybernetics. However, while inspired by the development
of sophisticated machines, his book denounced the idea that man can
be reduced to a machine. Psycho-cybernetics bridges the gap between
our mechanistic models of the brain's functioning (clichés like "Your
brain is a wonderful computer") and the knowledge of ourselves as
being a lot more than machines.
Maltz said that human beings have an "essence" or life force that
cannot be reduced to a mere brain and physical body. Jung called it
the "libido," Bergson the "elan vital." A person cannot be defined by
their physical body or brain, just as electricity cannot be defined by
the wire through which it travels. We are, rather, systems in constant
flux.
Some readers will be uncomfortable with this distinction between
the brain and the mind, but it does make sense in relation to Maltz's
key statement: "Man is not a machine, but has and uses a machine."

This distinction is crucial to understanding the larger subject of the
book: setting and achieving goals.
Guided missile technology applied to humans
The founder of cybernetics was American mathematician Norbert
Wiener, who spent the Second World War refining guided missile technology.
Stressing the similarities between machines, animals, human
brains, and societies, Wiener was way ahead of his time in predicting
that there was nothing to prevent machines "thinking" in the way that
humans do. He saw both computers and the human brain as systems
that take in low-energy data and create new connections to be used in
interactions with the external world. Feedback from the external environment
is used to enhance subsequent communications with it.
This virtuous loop of control, communication, and feedback is the
key feature of a "servo-mechanism" that needs to arrive at a preset
goal. Once it knows where it is going, a guided missile hits its target
via constant feedback and communication with itself.
Maltz thought: Why couldn't this technology be applied to human
achievement? He realized that the key point about the loop is that it
gains an automaticity when the target or goal is very clearly fixed. When
you first learn to drive, you have to worry about every car and process
every sign ahead of you on the road—the result is that you move slowly
and are liable to get lost. In time, however, driving becomes easy
because you know your destination when you sit behind the wheel, and
body and mind automatically do what is necessary to reach it.
Cybernetics appeared such a breakthrough to Maltz because its
implication was that achievement was a matter of choice. Most important
to the dynamic of achieving was the "what" (the target), rather
than the "how" (the path). The frontal lobes or conscious thinking part
of the brain could devise the goal, or create the image of the person
you wanted to be, and the subconscious mind would deliver its attainment.
The "set and forget" mechanism of guided missiles would also
work for our deepest desires.
The importance of the self-image
Maltz was a plastic surgeon. Distinguished as he was in his field, he
was at a loss to explain why a minority of patients were no happier after their operations than before, even if disfiguring scars or other malformations
had been removed. He found himself drawn into the new
self-image psychology, which held that we generally conform in action
and thought to a deep image of ourselves. Without a change to this
inner image, patients would still feel themselves to be ugly, however
excellent the cosmetic work.
He came to believe that self-image was the "golden key" to a better
life. Without an understanding of it, we might forever be fiddling
around the "circumference of the self," instead of at its center. Positive
thinking, for instance, could be of no use if it simply related to particular
external circumstances. Saying "I will get this job" will not do anything
if the idea of being in the job is not consistent with how you see
yourself deep down.
How it works
We acquire our self-image through our beliefs about ourselves, which
grow out of past experience of success and failure and of how others
see us. Maltz argued that both are unworthy of the privilege of determining
our basic psychological template. The crucial and fascinating
point about the self-image is that it is value neutral, that is, it doesn't
care if it is empowering or destructive, but will form itself simply
according to what psychological food it is fed. We can either create an
image of the self that can accommodate prosperity, peace, and greatness,
or we can stick with a defective one that can't even get us out of
bed in the morning. The point is that a positive self-image that can see
you fulfill your dreams does not happen by accident—it must be
thought about and manufactured.
Nevertheless, how is the self-image actually changed? What of the
person who has experienced little but failure? This was a disturbing
question for Maltz, since the evidence was that the self-image was
changed by experiencing, not by intellectual means. However, this was
not the case in reality because—and this is one of the book's most significant
points—experimental and clinical psychologists had established
beyond doubt that the brain is not great at telling the difference
between an actual experience and one imagined in full and vivid detail.
(Such results had been understood years before by William James.) This
meant that winning images of the self could replace negative ones,
denying any authority to past events. The beauty of self-image was that while it was the supreme factor in determining success or failure, it was
also extremely malleable.
Living out the image
The brain thinks in terms of images, therefore if you can consciously
create the desired image of yourself the brain and nervous system will
automatically provide continual feedback to ensure that it "lives up to"
the preordained image. In a well-known clinical experiment, one group
of basketball players was physically trained to throw more balls
through the hoop, while another was taught merely to visualize throwing
goals. Despite the absence of any physical practice, the second
group far outscored the first.
The brain, nervous system, and muscles are obedient servants of pictures
placed in your head. But the ability of your body and brain to
manifest the desired self-image depends on its indelibility. It must be
tattooed on the brain. With such a strong image of ourselves, it is difficult
not to live out and manifest all that is associated with the selfimage.
Instead of just "having goals," we become them.
Final comments
Much of self-help writing is about goals, but how does goal setting
work? Why does it work? Maltz was the first to explore its actual
machinery, and in doing this he has been a key influence to a generation
of success writers. The emphasis on positive self-image paved the
way for hundreds of books on the power of affirmation and visualization
techniques. Psycho-Cybernetics has sold in its millions because it
provides a scientific rationale for dream fulfillment.
Notwithstanding its Reader's Digest style of writing, this is, in fact,
a textbook. The science and computing references are now outdated,
but the principles of cybernetics have only grown in influence. Complexity
theory, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science all grew out
of the cybernetic understanding of how the non-physical, the "ghost in
the machine," guides matter. This makes Psycho-Cybernetics the perfect
self-help book for a technological culture.
It is admirable because it was written at a time when behaviorism
and time-and-motion studies, which tended to reduce people to the
mechanical, were at their zenith. Maltz's genius was in saying that while we were "machines," and while the dynamics of goal setting and
self-image might best be described in mechanistic terms, the fantastic
variety of our desires and our ability to create new worlds were
uniquely human. What could never be reduced to machine analogies
were the fires of imagination, ambition, and will.