Maxwell Maltz was an American cosmetic surgeon and author of
Psycho-Cybernetics, which was a system of ideas that he claimed could
improve one's self-image. In turn, the person would lead a more
successful and fulfilling life. He wrote several books, among which
Psycho-Cybernetics was a long-time bestseller - influencing many
subsequent self-help teachers. His orientation towards a system of ideas
that would provide self-help is considered the forerunner of the now
popular self-help books. The word cybernetic 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 organises itself to achieve a task. Maltz applied
the science to man 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
(cliches like 'Your brain is a wonderful computer'), and the knowledge
of ourselves as being a lot more than machine. 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. In this book
"Psycho-Cybernetics and Self-Fulfillment", Dr. Maxwell Maltz teach
about: Goals, Self Image, Happiness, and more...