Home > Gregory Bateson

Bateson is most famous for developing the " Double Bind " theory of psychology, and for being Margaret Mead's husband. In academic circles he is something of a cult figure whose appeal includes his obscurity, eccentricity and diversity of accomplishment. Still, the rise of interest in holism, systems, and cybernetics have naturally led educators and students to Bateson's published work.

By his own admission Bateson is widely misunderstood, and the inability to write clearly sometimes ascribed to him might be largely at fault. His writings are difficult for a number of reasons, particularly his tendency to speak in the abstract. However, many scholars consider his works to contain a great deal of original thought and reward careful reading.

One of the threads that connects Bateson's work is an interest in systems theory and cybernetics. Bateson's take on these fields is idiosyncratic and centers upon their relationship to epistemology. Peculiar take or not, these central interests of Bateson’s provide the undercurrents of his thought. His association with the editor and author Stewart Brand was part of a process by which Bateson’s influence widened - for from the 1970s until Bateson’s last years, a broader audience of university students and educated people working in many fields came not only to know his name but also into contact (to varying degrees) with his thought.

1 Epigrams coined by or referred to by Bateson

• Number is different from quantity.
• The map is not the territory, and the name is not the thing named. Coined by Alfred Korzybski.
• There are no monotone "values" in biology.
• Logic is a poor model of cause and effect.
• Language commonly stresses only one side of any interaction.
• Bateson defines information as "a difference that makes a difference", "knowledge is a difference that makes a difference that makes a difference".

2 Terms used by Bateson

• Creatura & Pleroma. Coined by Carl Gustav Jung in "THE SEVEN SERMONS TO THE DEAD". Like the Hindu term maya, the basic idea captured in this distinction is that meaning and organization are projected onto the world. Pleroma refers to the world undifferentiated by subjectivity; Creatura for the perceived world, subject to difference, distinction, and information.
• The Double Bind . This refers to his theory that part of the etiologyEtiology (alternately "aetiology") is the study of causation. In medicine the term specifically means the occurrences, reasons, and variables of diseases or pathologies. The term is also used in philosophy, physics and biology in reference to the causes o of schizophreniaSchizophrenia is a psychiatric diagnosis denoting a persistent, often chronic, mental illness variously affecting behaviour, thinking, and emotion. The term schizophrenia comes from the Greek words schizo split or divide) and phrenos mind) and is best tra lies in contradictory behavior on the part of parents.

3 Related topics

• Trance and Dance in BaliTrance and Dance in Bali is a short documentary film shot by Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson during their visits to Bali in the 1930s. The film wasn't released until 1952. In 1999 the film was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library
• schismogenesisConcept developed by the anthropologist Gregory Bateson in the 1930s to account for certain forms of social behavior between groups. Analogous to Emile Durkheim's concepts of mechanical and organic solidarity (see functionalism (sociology)), Bateson's pos