Double Bind: Much More Than Just a Step ‘Toward a Theory of Schizophrenia’

Abstract

In 1956, Bateson, Jackson, Haley, and Weakland published ‘Toward a Theory of Schizophrenia’. This paper was an early milestone in family therapy's development, signifying the importance that communications theory and cybernetics would hold for the evolution of the field over the ensuing three decades. Many are familiar with the notion of the double bind; however, the idea's theoretical underpinnings, and the broader contributions of the paper that launched it, are often misunderstood or overlooked. The 50th anniversary of the publication of ‘Toward a Theory of Schizophrenia’ offers an opportunity to revisit the importance of the contribution made by Bateson and his then colleagues, and to return to the fore the notions of logical typing, context, relationship and circularity that are at its heart.