Psycho-Cybernetics & Subconscious Mind Programming

This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Psycho-Cybernetics" by Maxwell Maltz. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.

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How does the subconscious mind sabotage your behavior? Is it possible to reprogram your subconscious mind to make yourself act in a more goal-oriented way?

Subconscious mind programming is rooted in the assumption that your mind can be programmed—just like a computer can be—to think in ways that are conducive to your goals. So, if your subconscious mind is working against you (preventing you from performing the behaviors needed to achieve your goals), you can reprogram it to be willing and able to perform those behaviors.

In this article, we’ll discuss two ways your subconscious mind programming impacts how you behave: by processing feedback and influencing your subconscious.

How Your Brain Learns

According to Maxwell Maltz, the author of Psycho-Cybernetics, the human brain and nervous system operate in accordance with cybernetic principles. We program our minds (often unconsciously) to achieve results in the same way that we program machines to achieve specific objectives.

To be able to utilize cybernetics principles for subconscious mind programming, you must first understand how your brain learns at the molecular level. When you learn, you change the physical structure of your brain by strengthening specific neural pathways. Here’s a very brief overview of neural pathways: 

The brain consists of a dense network of pathways consisting of neurons. Synapses allow sensory information to be transmitted through this network of neurons. This sensory information is stored in your short-term memory while your brain processes it by comparing it to the memories you’ve stored in your long-term memory. This process determines whether the new sensory information is kept or discarded.

Neuroscientists believe that your memory and recall rely upon the relationship that your neurons have with each other. The stronger the relationship (the more frequently these neurons interact with each other), the stronger your ability to remember and recall what you need to do. This is because strong neural pathways heighten the transmission speed of information and allow you to effortlessly recall the information you need. This is why you can perform your routine tasks without conscious effort.

Every time you learn something new, you need to form new neural connections within the brain—this requires conscious effort and attention. When you attempt to do something new, your brain has to work much harder because you haven’t yet developed the specific neural pathways—the neurons required to achieve the task haven’t developed a relationship so their communication is inefficient. However, the more you practice, the more you strengthen your neural pathways and encourage the required neurons to interact and develop strong pathways.

While cybernetic machines operate in the same way—they store the correct information and processes in their hard drive and can only operate as efficiently as their memory allows (RAM determines the speed and efficiency of a computer), they benefit from not having to learn or make decisions. Programming (coding for example) determines how they operate, and their hardware and software components determine what kind of tasks they can complete (a Dyson can’t solve equations because it doesn’t have the hardware or software built into it).

1. Your Self-Image Processes Feedback

Maltz argues that the self-image is continually reinforced by what he calls “feedback loops”—how feedback reinforces learned behavior and programming—and draws parallels with how cybernetic machines incorporate feedback to operate successfully.

In this article, you’ll learn how both machines and humans rely upon feedback loops to “operate” and why your interpretation of feedback reinforces your patterns of behavior.

Machines process feedback so that they can achieve their goal. Once they achieve the goal, they store their successful feedback (memory of successful attempts) and discard their negative feedback (memory of mistakes and failures). Their memory of successful attempts creates a feedback loop that allows them to “learn” quickly and operate efficiently and successfully.

However, unlike a machine, humans rely on their self-images to interpret feedback to their behavior. Your self-image decides whether to release negative feedback so that you operate successfully (behave in a way that results in success), or to remember and reinforce negative feedback so that you operate inefficiently (behave in a way that creates failure). If your self-image decides to focus on negative feedback, this can lead to programming that causes you to reinforce negative patterns of behavior that work against what you want to achieve. 

An Example of Unhelpful Feedback Loops

The following example illustrates how negative feedback loops take place to reinforce negative programming: 

  1. Bob was bullied at school and failed to receive support from his classmates, parents, or teachers. 
  2. Bob identified with feeling victimized and isolated, and these feelings contributed to his self-image and his personality. 
  3. As an adult, he finds it difficult to trust others and form close relationships, and he is overly sensitive to how others respond to him. This difficulty to connect with others is expressed in various ways, from aloofness to hostility, but produces the same effect—his behavior keeps people at a distance. 
  4. Bob reads these signals (the feedback) from others as proof that others don’t want to connect with him and he remains acutely aware of how they make him feel (victimized and isolated). 
  5. He uses his interpretation and feelings as proof that he should continue to protect himself from social interactions. 

Bob wants to connect with others (his goal) but his self-image causes him to interpret all feedback as negative, stops him from moving towards what he wants, and perpetuates his self-isolation.

Maltz argues that your self-image determines how you perceive your environment and how you read signals to interpret what others think of you. In other words, your self-image determines how you engage in and perceive every social interaction and experience throughout your life. Feedback loops direct your behavior: Your interpretation of your environment justifies your self-image and how you continue to act—how you continue to act further reinforces your interpretation of your environment, and so on.

Psycho-Cybernetics & Subconscious Mind Programming

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  • How to program your mind in the same way you’d program a machine
  • How your self-image and patterns of thinking impact everything you do
  • Five methods you can use to improve self-image and create success

Darya Sinusoid

Darya’s love for reading started with fantasy novels (The LOTR trilogy is still her all-time-favorite). Growing up, however, she found herself transitioning to non-fiction, psychological, and self-help books. She has a degree in Psychology and a deep passion for the subject. She likes reading research-informed books that distill the workings of the human brain/mind/consciousness and thinking of ways to apply the insights to her own life. Some of her favorites include Thinking, Fast and Slow, How We Decide, and The Wisdom of the Enneagram.

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