The Bateson Project (1953-1963) was the name given to a ground-breaking collaboration organized by

Gregory Bateson Gregory Bateson (9 May 1904 – 4 July 1980) was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician, and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. His writings include '' Steps to an ...

which was responsible for some of the most important papers and innovations in communication and psychotherapy in the 1950s and early 1960s. Its other members were

Donald deAvila Jackson __NOTOC__ Donald deAvila Jackson, M.D. (2 January 1920 – 29 January 1968) was an American psychiatrist best known for his pioneering work in family therapy. From 1947 to 1951, he studied under Harry Stack Sullivan. From 1953 to 1962, he worked ...

Jay Haley Jay Douglas Haley (July 19, 1923 – February 13, 2007) was one of the founding figures of brief and family therapy in general and of the strategic model of psychotherapy, and he was one of the more accomplished teachers, clinical supervisors, and ...

John Weakland John H. Weakland (8 January 1919 – 18 July 1995) was one of the founders of brief and family psychotherapy. At the time of his death, he was a senior research fellow at the Mental Research Institute (MRI) in Palo Alto, California, co-director of t ...

, and Bill Fry. Perhaps their most famous and influential publication was ''Towards a Theory of Schizophrenia'' (1956), which introduced the concept of the

Double Bind A double bind is a dilemma in communication in which an individual (or group) receives two or more reciprocally conflicting messages. In some scenarios (e.g. within families or romantic relationships) this can be emotionally distressing, creating ...

, and helped found

Family Therapy Family therapy (also referred to as family counseling, family systems therapy, marriage and family therapy, couple and family therapy) is a branch of psychology and clinical social work that works with families and couples in intimate relationsh ...

. One of the project's first locations was the

Menlo Park VA Hospital Menlo may refer to: Geography *Menlo, County Galway, Ireland *Menlo Park (disambiguation), multiple places United States *Menlo, Georgia *Menlo, Iowa *Menlo, Kansas *Menlo, Washington Institutions *Menlo College, Atherton, California *Menlo Scho ...

, which was chosen because of Bateson's previous work there as an

ethnologist Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology) ...

. The initial research, which was funded by a

Rockefeller grant Rockefeller is a German surname, originally given to people from the village of Rockenfeld near Neuwied in the Rhineland and commonly referring to subjects associated with the Rockefeller family. It may refer to: People with the name Rockefeller fa ...

, focused on "strange communication" and nonsensical language among the patients of the institution who had

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...

. The group studied this within the context of double bind communication in family dynamics.

Bibliography

*"Development of a theory: A history of a research project", in C. Sluzki & D. Ransom (Eds.). ''Double bind: The foundation of the communicational approach to the family''. NY: Grune & Stratton, Publishers. *"One thing leads to another", by John Weakland, in C. Wilder-Mott & J. Weakland (Eds.) ''Rigor & Imagination: Essays from the legacy of Gregory Bateson''. NY: Praeger. *''Change: Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution'', with Paul Watzlawick and Richard Fisch (WW Norton, NY, 1974). *''The Interactional View: Studies at the Mental Research Institute'', Palo Alto, 1965–1974, edited with Paul Watzlawick (WW Norton, NY, 1979).

References

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External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20080211090234/http://www.mri.org/dondjackson/brp.htm *https://web.archive.org/web/20070813225924/http://www.mri.org/dondjackson/toward.htm The front page of the historic article, Towards a Theory of Schizophrenia * Pape
''Gregory Bateson: Cybernetics and the social behavioral sciences''
by Lawrence S. Bale, Ph.D.: First Published in: ''Cybernetics & Human Knowing: A Journal of Second Order Cybernetics & Cyber-Semiotics'', Vol. 3 no. 1 (1995), pp. 27–45. * Articl

by Patrice Guillaume: Excellent introductory article about Double Bind * Articl

by Matthijs Koopmans, 1997. * Articl

by Matthijs Koopmans, 1996. *https://web.archive.org/web/20080126114245/http://www.behavenet.com/capsules/treatments/famsys/dblebnd.htm *https://web.archive.org/web/20080215124155/http://laingsociety.org/cetera/pguillaume.htm Psychotherapy