📖Psycho-cybernetics: updated and expanded

authors

Maltz, Maxwell

year

2015

• pp.xix–xx Positive thinking works when it’s consistent with self-image and does not when it is not

• p.2 all your actions are consistent with self-image and you cannot act otherwise

• p.3 self-image can be changed

• p.4 personality is a system of ideas that must seem to be consistent

• p.5 self-consistency: A theory of personality by Lecky (out of print) #book

• p.12 subconscious mind is not a mind at all but a machine of brain and nervous system used by “conscious” mind. (There is a single mind.)

  • the subconscious is a goal-striving machine (“Creative Mechanism”)

• p.13 mental images are our goal

  • self-image is the most important of them

• p.13 our attitudes and interpretations define problems to solve

• p.20 unlike animals, man can set their own goals

• p.21 “cybernetics” from Greek = “steerman”

• p.22 man is not a machine but has a machine that he uses

• 2 types of servo-mechanism:

  • pursuing goal

    • move forward, make mistakes, correct them

  • selecting goal

    • the “goal” already exists—you just filter your options

• p.30 a man cannot develop a new self-image by pure will or arbitrary deciding to do so. There must be some justification why the previous image is incorrect and new image is appropriate.

• read ch.2 3 times per week for 21 day

• p.31 you only have to select the goal. the mechanism will sort its way through

• rehearse situations and imagine answering the most difficult questions and situations correctly

• p.84 if you can openly speak before friends, you can do public speaking—you only have to perceive audience as your friends

• p.84 “piano men” (I have never tried)

• §5 use your reason to shake off irrational beliefs

• §6 relax and let you machine work

  • worry before you bet, not after

  • be in the present moment

  • do not multitask

  • sleep on it

  • relax while you work

• p.108 happy people are generally more successful (or vice versa?)

• p.113

  Men are disturbed not by the things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that happen. —Epictecus

• p.127 Success

  • S—Sense of direction (have a goal, project(s) or a cause)

  • U—Understanding (seek truth in the situation, not your guesses)

  • C—Courage

  • C—Compassion

  • E—Esteem

  • S—Self-confidence

  • S—Self-acceptance

• p.146 Failure

  • F—Frustration, hopelessness, futility → unrealistic goals

  • A—Aggressiveness (misdirected)

  • I—Insecurity

  • L—Loneliness (lack of “oneness”)

  • U—Uncertainty

  • R—Resentment

  • E—Emptiness

• p.150 → You cannot correct your course if you’re standing still

  You cannot correct your course if you’re standing still.

• Use these negative signs as symptoms/indicators and take corrective actions.

• p.200 disinhibition

  • the people need to think before they say, but not you

  • p.203 speak louder to disinhibit

• p.210 delay your response to stimuli (to calm down)

• p.228 learning without pressure creates broader “cognitive maps.” Learning under pressure ingrains one way of solving problem → Learning without pressure creates broader “cognitive maps”

  • p.254 learn the feeling of success

  • p.255 gradually increase difficulty

• p.281 the man does not peak at 25 and then decline. Latest findings show that man peak at ~35 and then maintain level until well past 70 → Man peaks at 35 and then maintains

Backlinks

• 📝 You cannot correct your course if you’re standing still
• 📝 Mental peak at 25 is a misconception
• 📝 Learning without pressure creates broader “cognitive maps”
• 📝 Man peaks mentally at 35 and then maintains the level
• 📝 Self-image