Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz

Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz

Ebook/ Audiobook with a new introduction by Matt Furey (The president of the Psycho-Cybernetics foundation)
Rating; This book is one of the top self help non fiction books which does not need any rating!

The running length is around 14 hours or so which can be reduced by increasing the narration speed to around 1.3 (This is actually recommended since there was a section which I played via my watch in the normal speed and it was so boring and deliberately slow!)

This is apparently one of the most successful self help books! (when I was writing this, I remember writing the same for many books like Habit of highly effective people, Atomic Habits and so many more!).

I think this just goes to prove that there are many self help books, most will find some sizeable audience, many people need help and most importantly if you need help in your life especially in making money then write a self-help book!

Cybernetics (loosely translated from the Greek): “a helmsman who steers his ship to port.” Psycho-Cybernetics is a term modified by Dr. Maxwell Maltz, means, “steering your mind to a productive, useful goal so you can reach the greatest port in the world, peace of mind.”

In this very popular book, Maxwell who is a plastic surgeon by profession states how the strongest computer in the world that is our brain has the power within and we have to unleash it somehow! How you can bear pain without anesthesia if your mind is powerful enough! How what you feel is actually the power of your brain and nothing else! Maxwell was a great surgeon and a researcher and this is a must read book!

Now people who are reading this and especially people who need help must understand that the above statement is a joke!

Maxwell Malt is a plastic surgeon who during his work on patients who were not happy with the way they used to look before surgery were still not either confident or convinced of the fact that the surgery has changed his or her appearance! Then he understood that unless he changes them internally, he would not be able to bring about any change externally!
The book is told in parts by Maxwell Maltz and Matt fury; the latter is the president of Psycho-cybernetics foundation and a professional trainer and a well established author himself. There are different updates of the book and all are successful.

The crux of the book is that traditionally what we call the “subconscious mind” isn’t a “mind” but a cybernetic mechanism built on our nervous system! So by a series of exercise and thought process you can condition your mind to do stuffs which includes getting success or feeling good about yourself!

With intermittent narration by both the narrators; it is a thrilling ride of inspiration and positivity !

You start believing that you can do something once you put your mind into it!
Some of the exercises have been placed in such a way that you get a break and think about it. This book is the first in a series and apparently there are more with specific exercises to make you gain your confidence.

The whole idea is inspired by Norbert Wiener’s book called the Cybernetics which describes both animals and the self guided missiles he helped develop in WWII as goal seeking mechanisms.

So Maltz postulates that there’s a mechanism which accepts a goal and has a self correction and some form of memory.

Maxwell Maltz found that his plastic surgery patients often had expectations that were not satisfied by the surgery, so he pursued a means of helping them set the goal of a positive outcome through visualization of that positive outcome. He says how patients thinking that surgery will solve their problems is an example of the XY problem. He specified techniques to develop a positive inner goal as a means of developing a positive outer goal. This concentration on inner attitudes is essential to his approach, as he believes that a person’s outer success can never rise above the one visualized internally.

In one section he states how physical scars are formed because the wound heals under tension and the gap between the wounds is filled by fibrous tissue! A plastic surgeon ensures that there is no tension which makes the scars less or none! In the same way apparently even emotional scars develop when there is stress and tension or frustration! According to him the best way to heal or repair those scars is to reduce emotional stress or tension!

The hypothetical measure of an individual’s capacity to resist stress is adaptation energy according to Maxwell. It is like each person is believed to have a finite amount of adaptation energy, which is used to cope with different types of stress. Energy expended to cope with one type of stress, such as staying up late, results in less being available for other stresses, such as training. When adaptation energy is low, a person is more likely to suffer from stress-related diseases and conditions known as burnout and rundown!

With these and many more excerpts and suggestions and basically the book is a booster for your mind and body and it works wonders! Some of the works are said to be magical according to the author!

Of course this is a reference book with constant read back and updation and I am sure the subsequent books will up the ante so to speak!

Had a positive energy while reading it and I hope you feel it too!