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STEPS TO AN ECOLOGY OF MIND: COLLECTED ESSAYS IN ANTHROPOLOGY, PSYCHIATRY, EVOLUTION AND EPISTEMOLOGY |
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Balinese Painting (Ida Bagus Djati Sura; Batuan, 1937) [Analysis, p. 147] Inside Front Cover STEPS TO AN ECOLOGY OF MIND GREGORY BATESON The reprinting of Gregory Bateson's classic work, Steps to an Ecology of Mind, is an important publishing event making his thought more accessible to new readers and a broader public. The volume contains almost everything that he wrote, with the exception of books and lengthy or ephemeral items. The title precisely defines the contents. These essays, written over thirty-five years, combine to propose a new way of thinking about ideas and about those aggregates of ideas that Bateson terms minds. This book builds a bridge between the facts of life and behavior and what we know about the nature of pattern and order. The questions raised by Bateson are ecological: Is there some sort of natural selection that determines the survival of some ideas and the extinction or death of others? What sort of economics limits the multiplicity of ideas in a given region of mind? What are the necessary conditions for stability (or survival) of such a system or subsystem? The main thrust of the book is to clear the way so that such questions can be asked in a meaningful way. Bateson is concerned with four sorts of subject matter: anthropology, psychiatry, biological evolution and genetics, and the new epistemology from systems theory and ecology. This book addresses Bateson's thesis that in scientific research one starts from two beginnings, each with its own authority: the observations cannot be denied, and the fundamentals must be fitted. This reflects Bateson's basic concern that the vast majority of the concepts of contemporary fields of investigation are totally detached from the network of scientific fundamentals. This book speaks for itself. Readers will come back again and again to its timely, poignant insights and message. About the Author Gregory Bateson, son of pioneer geneticist William Bateson, studied biology and natural history at Cambridge University, where he received his master's degree in anthropology. His work spanned many fields, from anthropology, cybernetics, and communications theory, to his studies of alcoholism and schizophrenia at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Palo Alto, California. His major contributions to psychiatry include the "double-bind" hypothesis, which describes how some individuals who receive contradictory messages of love and rejection from their parents may become schizophrenic. Dr. Bateson's classic works include Naven, a study of New Guinea natives, Balinese Character, a collaboration with Margaret Mead, and Mind and Nature. Jacket design by Nancy Bonaldi Back Cover "Steps to an Ecology of Mind belongs in the library of every educated person; it is quite simply a foundation work providing an intellectual structure on which clinicians, evolutionists, cyberneticians, and social scientists of all persuasions have built. Twenty-five years after its original publication it still tingles with excitement and refreshing new ideas -- and will continue to do so for years to come. My coming to this book is as a family therapist, and it is fair to say that Bateson the epistemologist continues to energize new ways of thought in my field... From opening metalogue to closing essay on ecology and flexibility and urban civilization Bateson, our fellow human, shines through: serious and playful, ethical and rigorous, always the powerful intellect at work, always the close observer of starfish, otter, dolphin, schizophrenics, and the State Board of Education of California. Those of us who have read and reread his works over the years continue to be refreshed and enchanted." -- Donald Bloch, M.D. "Testimony of the transition period between Gregory Bateson's anthropologic and psychiatric work -- Naven and Balinese Character, and Communication -- and his broader epistemological platform -- Mind and Nature and Angels Fear -- Steps to an Ecology of Mind contains a broad scope of the fundamental contributions of this scientist, including the seminal papers of the 'double bind' project and the first series of enchanting Metalogues. Philosophical depth, conceptual rigor, and an uncanny scientific imagination are the hallmarks of this invaluable collection by one of the most influential minds of this century." -- Carlos E. Sluzki, M.D., Chairman, Department of Psychiatry, Berkshire Medical Center "At the time many of the essays in Steps to an Ecology of Mind became available, family therapy was only a gleam in the creative, collective mind of Bateson's 1950s research group on communication in Palo Alto ... At some point, a small but momentous step was made: the group shifted from studying the speech of schizophrenics on their own to studying the discourse within their families. For the first time, a connection was made between the symptoms shown by an individual and the relationship context in which he or she was embedded .... This book is beautifully written, and Bateson is for me the same kind of poet philosopher as William Blake or Thomas Browne. I have been suffering with my one paperback copy, brown at the edges and beginning to get crisp, and this is not the sort of work that one wants in a form that cannot stand constant use. I applaud the decision of the publishers to bring out a sturdy hardback form with all my heart." -- Lynn Hoffman, A.C.S.W.
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