International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

A mental, psychological or behavioral tangle produced by an incongruity – apparent or real – between two different levels of contextual explanation.

The famous self-contradictory paradox of EPIMENIDES the Cretan, saying that all Cretans are liars, is a typical example of a double-bind, leading to a logical contradiction.

As noted by R. VALLÉE, double binds are contradictory constraints, "generating unstable behaviors" and "belonging to cybernetics of the second order" (1993, p.95).

Double-binds leave us in a state of mental or psychological confusion and blocks our possibilities of efficient behavior.

This important concept, introduced by G. BATESON in 1956 (1973, p.173), has been thus commented by him: "We have learned from the paradigm of the freely falling body – and from many similar paradigms in many other sciences – to approach scientific problems in a peculiar way: The problems are to be simplified by ignoring – or postponing – consideration of the possibility that the larger context may influence the smaller. Our hypothesis runs counter to this rule, and is focused precisely upon the determining relations between larger and smaller contexts" (p.216).

This is a very important systemic and cybernetic notion, because it focuses our attention on the necessity to become conscious not only of the "horizontal" interconnections between elements or events, but also of the "vertical" ones. Let us altogether take care that "horizontal" or "vertical" are no more than verbal metaphors about the supposed organization of our mental processes.

The subject is closely related to RUSSELL and WHITEHEAD's theory of types, from the logical viewpoint and to von FOERSTER's inquiry on observing systems (1981).

→ E. BERNARD-WEIL Agonistics (1988).