Book Reviews

Psycho-Cybernetics Book Review (The 2015 Updated Version)

Psycho-Cybernetics is one of the foundation works that started the self-help movement. Have you ever heard of it before?

It’s not gotten much attention in recent years. The list of people it has influenced is enormous.

Have you ever found yourself full of enthusiasm and momentum to make changes?

And as you’re working towards your goal, you get distracted or discouraged? Or maybe the self-sabotage was more subtle.

Maxwell Maltz’s Psycho-Cybernetics lays out the roadmap for you to make positive and lasting changes in your life.

Who Was Maxwell Maltz and How Did He Know This Stuff?

Dr. Maxwell Maltz was a plastic surgeon who had the insight to observe his clients. He realized that many people weren’t happy after getting work done, and some still felt that they had a physical problem that no one else could see.

Blending psychology with surgery, Dr. Maltz set his clients up for success by having them change their thinking before he’d agree to change their physical appearance.

When you read this book, you will need to discover your inner self-image. That can help you change the programming.

Nothing can change until you get real with your current programming and who you want to be.

Maxwell Maltz picture copywright 2006 of the Psycho-Cybernetics Foundation

My Brain Is A Computer?

In the original book, Dr. Maltz was the first person to call the brain a computer with programming. He referred to it as the servo-mechanism.

Cybernetics was originally derived from Greek “to steer.” In the 1940s, it evolved to mean the science of communications and automatic control systems in both machines and living things.

We all have old and outdated thoughts in our mind that plays over and over again. These incorrect thoughts steer our behaviors.

Dr. Maltz also talked about our “Creative Mechanism” and how everyone has it. It’s the spark in us that wants to help us be more successful. And it’s like a program as well.

Often, we don’t tune into that program. When we can listen to it, we tap into our success mechanism, and let the magic happen.

Relaxing Helps Increase Our Happiness

We all suffer from way too much stress. Since Dr. Maltz wrote the first edition of his book, we’ve lost much of our free time.

Most of us are working positions that used to have three people staffing. Our leisure time has dried up. And we feel the need to be connected all the time.

So, you may be asking if it still works in today’s highly demanding world.

The key is giving yourself permission to step back and relax. You can tap into your inner genius by focusing on a problem, and then letting it go.

Do something physical like go for a walk, or take a nap. It worked for Thomas Edison.

Suddenly, the answer will pop into your brain as if by magic.

When we try to force ourselves to find a solution, we end up exhausted and stressed.

Where There’s a Will…

Many of the self-help books discuss having a strong will and persistence as well as a positive mental attitude.

Often we can start down a new path full of enthusiasm only to come to a crashing halt. It may be something subtle, but we just stop doing what we know we should.

The problem is our self-image and mental map of who we think we really are.

When we can change the programming, we can change our lives.

Dehypnotize Yourself

Many of your negative beliefs were placed in your brain through a form of hypnosis.

These negative ideas have the same effect on our behavior as the negative ideas implanted into our minds by a professional hypnotist.

They got in when our minds were relaxed and open, and we believed the thought to be true. Then we held on to it long after we had proof that it wasn’t true.

So if we hypnotized ourselves, we can dehypnotize ourselves as well.

Psycho-Cybernetics has practical exercises including one to help you re-hypnotize yourself.

Let Go of Your Past

Dr. Maltz never considered himself to be a psychologist. He was a plastic surgeon who studied psychology. And he never felt that you needed to go back and reflect on your childhood problems to heal your current situation.

You can identify who you are now, and where you want to go. Then you can release the past and reprogram your mind.

Choose to Be Happy

Dr. Maltz believed happiness was a habit that you acquired through conscious choice and practice.

When you’re happy, Dr. Maltz believed, you free yourself from a lot of physical ailments. He mentioned that disease was dis-ease, or that you were moving away from peace and happiness.

As mentioned in a few prior blogs, the key to being happy is choosing to be happy where you are with what you have.

Dr. Maltz knew this didn’t sound easy. In the book, there was an example of a woman who was unhappy being married to an alcoholic. He said she can choose to be happier in her situation, and not take on negative habits of being upset and judging.

In Psycho-Cybernetics, he discusses being rational. When you can unhook your reactions from a situation, you will be better able to make smarter choices in your life.

And you will find yourself happier because you feel more in control

My Final Thoughts

Dr. Wayne Dyer was influenced by Psycho-Cybernetics and wrote it in his book I Can See Clearly Now. One of his favorite sayings could have come directly out of Psycho-Cybernetics: “There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.”

Positive thinking will never work so long as your mental blueprint doesn’t believe you are capable of achieving it.

So spend 10 minutes every day for thirty days retraining your brain, and you will be amazed at how you’ve

You can find this book online or at a local bookstore. You may even be able to find it at a local used bookstore. The original book was published in 1960 and is good. There was an update around 2002 with Dan Kennedy, and then in 2015 with Matt Furey. I’d recommend the latest edition if you can find it as it’s been enhanced with more current examples.

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