PANTHEON
ExploreBuild My Library
© 2026 Pantheon — an atlas of the ideas that shaped how we think.
person1930s-1980

Gregory Bateson

Disciplines:
psychology
anthropology
neuroscience/cybernetics

Summary

British-American anthropologist and cyberneticist who developed the double bind theory of schizophrenia and one of the most integrative theories of mind, ecology, and communication.

Core Contribution

Double bind: a communicative situation in which contradictory messages at different levels of abstraction are received simultaneously, with no exit possible — proposed as a contribution to schizophrenia etiology. Steps to an Ecology of Mind: a collection of essays developing a systemic, pattern-based view of mind, nature, and communication. Mind is immanent in the system, not located in the individual organism.

Notable Works & Achievements

Naven

Communication: The Social Matrix of Psychiatry

Steps to an Ecology of Mind

Mind and Nature

Historical Influences

Norbert Wiener Margaret Mead

Intellectual Lineage

British AnthropologyCybernetics

Contemporaries & Peers

Margaret Mead Norbert Wiener

Minds Influenced

Family Systems Therapy Cognitive Science Stewart Brand

Intellectual Posterity

Systems Thinking Family TherapyEcology of Mind

Discussing

Gregory Bateson

Ask anything about Gregory Bateson — their ideas, influences, contradictions, legacy.

Sign in to start a conversation.