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Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson (9 May 1904 ? 4 July 1980) was a British anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, semiotician and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. Some of his most noted writings are to be found in his books, Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972) and Mind and Nature (1980). Angel's Fear (published posthumously in 1987) was co-authored by his daughter Mary Catherine Bateson.
BiographyBateson was born in Grantchester, England on 9 May 1904, the youngest of three sons of distinguished geneticist William Bateson and his wife, [Caroline] Beatrice Durham. He attended Charterhouse School from 1917 to 1921. He graduated BA in biology at St. John's College, Cambridge University, in 1925 and continued at Cambridge from 1927 to 1929. Bateson lectured in linguistics at the University of Sydney 1928. From 1931 to 1937 he was a fellow at Cambridge [1] and then moved to the United States. In Palo Alto, Gregory Bateson and his colleagues Donald Jackson, Jay Haley and John H. Weakland developed the double bind theory.[2] One of the threads that connects Bateson's work is an interest in systems theory, cybernetics a science he helped to create as one of the original members of the core group of the Macy Conferences. Bateson's take on these fields centers upon their relationship to epistemology, and this central interest provides 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. In 1956, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Bateson was a member of William Irwin Thompson's Lindisfarne Association. Personal lifeBateson's life was greatly affected by the death of his two brothers. John Bateson (1898-1918), the eldest of the three, was killed in World War I. Martin, the second brother (1900-1922), was then expected to follow in his father's footsteps as a scientist, but came into conflict with William over his ambition to become a poet and playwright. The resulting stress, combined with a disappointment in love, resulted in Martin's public suicide by gunshot under the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus on April 22, 1922, which was John's birthday. After this event, which transformed a private family tragedy into public scandal, all William and Beatrice's ambitious expectations fell on Gregory, their only surviving son.[3] Bateson's first marriage, in 1936, was to American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead.[4] Bateson and Mead had a daughter Mary Catherine Bateson (b. 1939), who also became an anthropologist. Bateson and Mead separated in 1947, and were divorced in 1950.[5] Bateson then married his second wife, Elizabeth "Betty" Sumner (1919-1992), in 1951.[6] She was the daughter of the Episcopalian Bishop of Chicago, Walter Taylor Sumner. They had a son, John Sumner Bateson (b. 1952), as well as twins who died in infancy. Bateson and Sumner were divorced in 1957, after which Bateson married therapist and social worker Lois Cammack (b. 1928) in 1961. Their daughter, Nora Bateson, was born in 1969.[7] Nora is married to drummer Dan Brubeck, son of jazz musician Dave Brubeck. Work
The anthropologists Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead contrasted first and Second-order cybernetics with this diagram in an inteview in 1973.[8] Epigrams coined by or referred to by Bateson
http://plato.acadiau.ca/courses/educ/reid/papers/PME25-WS4/SEM.html http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=author:%22Jacob%22%20intitle:%22Classification%20and%20Categorization:%20A%20Difference%20that%20...%22%20
Perhaps there is no such thing as unilateral power. After all, the man ?in power? depends on receiving information all the time from outside. He responds to that information just as much as he ?causes? things to happen...it is an interaction, and not a lineal situation. But the myth of power is, of course, a very powerful myth, and probably most people in this world more or less believe in it. It is a myth, which, if everybody believes in it, becomes to that extent self-validating. But it is still epistemological lunacy and leads inevitably to various sorts of disaster. "[12]
Double bindIn 1956 in Palo Alto Gregory Bateson and his colleagues Donald Jackson, Jay Haley and John Weakland [14] articulated a related theory of schizophrenia as stemming from double bind situations. The perceived symptoms of schizophrenia were therefore an expression of this distress, and should be valued as a cathartic and trans-formative experience. The double bind refers to a communication paradox described first in families with a schizophrenic member. Full double bind requires several conditions to be met:
The double bind was originally presented (probably mainly under the influence of Bateson's psychiatric co-workers) as an explanation of part of the etiology of schizophrenia; today it is more important as an example of Bateson's approach to the complexities of communication. Other terms used by Bateson
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