Maxwell Maltz

Maxwell “Max” Maltz was an American cosmetic surgeon and writer whose work helped shape the modern self-help field. He was born on March 10, 1899, in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the third child of Josef Maltz and Taube Elzweig, Jewish immigrants from Resche in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, today Rzeszów, Poland. His life stretched across much of the twentieth century, from the immigrant neighborhoods of New York to a career in medicine, fiction, autobiography, and popular psychology. He died on April 7, 1975.

Maltz trained first as a physician. In 1923, he graduated with a doctorate in medicine from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He also studied under German plastic surgeons, who were considered among the most advanced in cosmetic surgery at the time. That medical background became central to the way he wrote about identity. His best-known nonfiction drew on questions of appearance, change, and the way people see themselves.

Before his most famous book, Maltz wrote Doctor Pygmalion: The Autobiography of a Plastic Surgeon, published in 1953. The book became popular and influential, and it was later discussed in many books on body and identity. After his self-help work appeared, the autobiography was re-titled Doctor Psycho-Cybernetics. Maltz also wrote fiction, including the play Unseen Scar in 1946 and the novel The Time is Now in 1975.

In 1960, Prentice-Hall published Psycho-Cybernetics: A New Way to Get More Living out of Life. A pocket book edition followed by 1969. This was the work that made Maltz best known. In it, he presented a system of ideas that he claimed could improve a person’s self-image and lead to a more successful and fulfilling life. He argued that people must have an accurate and positive view of themselves before setting goals, or else they would remain caught in limiting beliefs. Visualization of goals was central to his approach, and he saw self-image as the cornerstone of personal change.

Psycho-Cybernetics became a long-time bestseller and influenced many later self-help teachers. Maltz’s orientation toward a practical system for self-help is considered a forerunner of the popular self-help books that followed. As of 2008, the book was still listed among the 50 recommended titles in 50 Self-Help Classics. His words continue to resonate because they are direct about human fallibility and self-regard. One line often linked with him, “You make mistakes; mistakes don’t make you,” fits the heart of his message: a person’s errors need not define the person.