Psycho-Cybernetics is a self-help book written by Maxwell Maltz in 1960. Motivational and self-help experts in personal development, including Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy have based their techniques on Maxwell Maltz. Many of the psychological methods of training elite athletes are based on the concepts in Psycho-Cybernetics as well. The book combines the cognitive behavioral technique of teaching an individual how to regulate self-concept, using theories developed by Prescott Lecky, with the cybernetics of Norbert Wiener and John von Neumann. The book defines the mind-body connection as the core in succeeding in attaining personal goals. 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. Patients thinking that surgery will solve their problems is an example of the XY problem. Maltz became interested in why setting goals works. He learned that the power of self-affirmation and mental visualization techniques used the connection between the mind and the body. 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. The operator and the "mechanism" Maxwell Maltz drew inspiration from Norbert Wiener's book, Cybernetics, which describes both animals and the self-guided missiles he helped develop in WWII as goal-seeking mechanisms. In Psycho-Cybernetics, Maltz observed from Wiener's work the following on cybernetic mechanisms: There's a "mechanism" which can accept a "goal" has sensing equipment (cameras, radar, infrared, lasers) has a propulsion system has a correcting device has some form of memory The operator gives the mechanism a goal and "starts" it During propulsion, the mechanism subtracts what it senses from the goal from the data received If on track, nothing is done and it keeps going If off track, the correcting device shifts until "the goal minus what it senses" is on track. The mechanism refers to successful moves in its memory, hitting the goal without having to search for the answer again. He noted that Wiener sees that man operates the same way. From this, he drew the following conclusions on a human being: A person, for what is conscious, is "the operator", which can identify and offer goals