Note: this is an analysis of Chapter 1 of Pshycho-cybernetics. These are not my ideas. In some cases these are not even my words, they are direct quotes from the book. This is my attempt to understand the concepts by synthesizing the ideas into a shorter, more approachable narrative, with analogies and anecdotes to reenforce what I am learning. If this interests you, I urge you to read the actual book. I may or may not do this with future chapters.


Self-image is your key to a better life.

Each of us carries with us a mental blueprint or self-image, in our head. This self-image is our own idea of the “sort of person I am.”

Some people may recognize this sense of self, while others may not have any idea that it exists. But it does exist, and how you view yourself—what your self-image looks like—makes a huge impact on your quality of life. Your self-image dictates your actions, feelings, and behaviors, and even determines your abilities.

“Discovering your real self means the difference between freedom and the compulsions of conformity.”

Over time, your self-image is created from our own beliefs about ourselves, from our experiences, success and failures, humiliations and triumphs. This is especially true in childhood. Once an idea enters our sense of self, it becomes “true” in terms of how we see ourselves. In fact, how you see yourself, what is imprinted on that blueprint, is your reality.

It is your reality because all of your actions, feelings, behaviors, and abilities are always consistent with this self-image. In short, you will act like the sort of person you conceive yourself to be. The self-image is a foundation upon which your entire personality, behavior, and circumstances are built.

Fortunately, however, the self-image can be changed, but it’s not about simply "thinking positively." In fact, it is impossible to think positively about a particular situation as long as you hold a negative concept of your self. Positive thinking don’t get at the self.

Every one of us has goals, set consciously or unconsciously even if we do not know it. Olympians have goals. Heroin addicts have goals. Heatseekers have goals. Inside of us is our sub-conscious mind, which is less of a mind and more of a goal-striving mechanism that our mind uses as a tool to achieve whatever goals are set, whether you consciously set them or not. This mechanism is impersonal. Give it positive goals, it will execute as a Success Mechanism. Give it negative goals, it will execute as a Failure Mechanism. These together are referred to by Marx as the Creative Mechanism.

Take India’s Nag infrared-seeking missile as an analogy. Man fires missile at tank. Variables are introduced—wind, tank movement, shaky arms—that can throw it off course. This missile has a servo-mechanism (our sub-conscious mind) that seeks to hit its target (goal) by constantly and rapidly correcting failed goals of misdirection gleaned by input sensors. When the sensor detects the course is off for whatever reason, corrections are made until the goal is met.

Your own sub-conscious mind acts in the same way, whether you know it or not.

An outfielder has a Success Goal in mind to catch the pop fly, and his sub-conscious mind manages inputs like distance, velocity, wind, etc. to course correct his body onto the correct path. He does not look at the ball, actively calculate the velocity, measure his distance from the projected touchpoint, measure his own speed in relation to the ball’s velocity, etc. He just knows. His sub-conscious mind is filled with thousands of examples of successes and failures that contribute to his ability to make the catch. His mind is rapidly replaying each one of these instinctively to produce the desired result in realtime.

Place a man who has never heard of baseball in the outfield and watch him try to catch a fly ball. He, of course, will likely fail because he has no experience, no examples of successes or failures to guide his sub-conscious mind to the desired outcome. This is also why we preach experience over knowledge.

Place a man in the outfield who may be a Golden Glover, yet is suffering from a sudden case of the yips, and you may see something similar, albeit for very different reasons. The reason, I propose, is that a man suffering from the yips is suffering from a poor self-image, full of self doubt, with a sub-conscious mind acting accordingly to achieve a (negative) goal. This man continues to sub-consciously act in favor of goals—that’s not the problem. He’s not bad at achieving goals. He has simply introduced negative goals and his sub-conscious mind is achieving them as intended.

In the 6th grade I hated my algebra teacher and decided I was not a numbers guy. Regardless of the validity of that idea, I made it true because I believed it. And believing it created a vicious cycle that fed itself: I imprinted on my self-image that was bad at math. This became my reality, and I unconsciously used my sub-conscious mind, the impartial goal-seeker that it is, to achieve that goal of being bad at math by doing things like not studying, ignoring the lectures, and not doing homework. My grades would come back poor, further reaffirming my bad-at-numbers self-image. Rinse, repeat.

You can watch this type of cycle play out in realtime during game 1 of the 2000 NLDS with Rick Ankiel on the mound. This is a major league pitcher who literally can not only not find the strike zone, but can’t even find his way to the catcher. Remember, the self-image is a foundation upon which your entire personality, behavior, and circumstances are built. What do you think his self image looks like during this particular inning? Was it filled with past success and triumphs, or humiliations and fears?

Your imagination creates mental images that our Creative Mechanism sees as goals to achieve. Our self-image prescribes the limits for the accomplishment of any particular goal. It defines the “area of possibility.” So how you view yourself, how you view your own capacities, defines your “ceiling” or limits to what you can achieve. If we feed data into our Creative Mechanism that we are unworthy, incapable, etc. that data is processed and acted upon as any other data regardless of whether the conscious “we” wants that result or not.

To really live, to find life satisfying, you must have an adequate and realistic self-image that you can live with. It must be a reasonable approximation of “you.”

When this self-image is secure, you feel good; when it is threatened, you are anxious and insecure.

Your program (explored in future chapters) for getting more living out of life consists in 1) learning, practicing, and experiencing new habits of thinking, imagining, remembering, and acting in order to develop an adequate and realistic self-image and 2) using your Creative Mechanism, your sub-conscious, goal-seeking tool, to bring success and happiness in achieving particular goals.


Key points to remember

  1. Each of us carries with us a mental blueprint or self-image, in our head. This self-image is our own idea of the “sort of person I am.”
  2. Your self-image dictates your actions, feelings, and behaviors, and even determines your abilities.
  3. Over time, your self-image is created from our own beliefs about ourselves, from our experiences, success and failures, humiliations and triumphs.
  4. Your self-image can be changed.
  5. Each of us has goals, even if we don’t know it.
  6. Inside of us is our sub-conscious mind, which is less of a mind and more of a goal-striving mechanism that our mind uses as a tool to achieve whatever goals are set, good or bad.
  7. Our self-image prescribes the limits for the accomplishment of any particular goal. It defines the “area of possibility.”
  8. When this self-image is secure, you feel good; when it is threatened, you are anxious and insecure.