PSYchology

Double bind (author — Gregory Bateson, 1956) — literal translation — «double bind». Contradictory life situation created by man. In the Russian school of practical psychology, such situations are called «schizophrenic situation».

A double bind situation is an unscrupulously (and possibly maliciously) imputed duty of two kinds, which contains an internal contradiction and can in no way be fulfilled in principle, which does not at all relieve the victim of this imputation from punishment for its “non-fulfillment”. A classic example is the famous demand: «I order you not to follow my orders.» In a sense, double bind can be seen as a kind of cruel joke. However, jokes with very real negative consequences for the “victim”.

Characteristics of the Double Bind situation

  • internal contradiction. «I command you not to follow my orders.»

For example, at the verbal and non-verbal levels, a person is presented with mutually exclusive demands.

  • The “victim” is deprived of the opportunity to defend himself with logical arguments or to indicate the very existence of a double bind situation, since such an indication would be tantamount to accusing the other side of dishonesty and would mean entering into a direct confrontation.

An example of a Double bind situation: the mother says to the child: “never, you lousy beast, don’t swear at anyone and don’t let yourself be insulted — understand, nit?” At the same time, the child, of course, is deprived of the opportunity to draw the attention of the mother to the fact that she herself violates this requirement — otherwise he will simply receive another charge of aggression.

Russian translation

The name double-bind is difficult to translate into Russian without losing its meaning. Double bind translation

Triple bind

  1. At different Logical Levels of communication (for example, verbal and non-verbal) there are different, conflicting requirements;
  2. The «victim» is deprived of the opportunity to express his attitude to the situation or withdraw himself from the interaction.

Further study of communication led to the allocation of more complex situations based on double bind — triple bind.

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