Final statement on the Double Bind

This is taken from the final paragraph.  Note in particular the fourth statement and its clear refusal to get caught in the kind of causal dispute that discredited the approach among those on the lookout for approaches that threaten to "blame the victim" (in the case of schizophrenia, the victims must include all significant others).

The research project terminated in 1962 after ten years of association. A summary statement of the group agreement about the double bind at the time of termination would include the following:

1. The double bind is a class of sequences which appear when phenomena are examined with a concept of levels of communication.
2. In schizophrenia, the double bind is a necessary but not sufficient condition in explaining etiology and, conversely, is an inevitable by-product of schizophrenic communication.
3. Empirical study and theoretical description of individuals and families should for this type of analysis emphasize observable communication, behavior, and relationship contexts rather than focusing upon the perception or affective states of individuals.
4. The most useful way to phrase double bind description is not in terms of a binder and a victim but in terms of people caught up in an ongoing system which produces conflicting definitions of the relationship and consequent subjective distress. In its attempts to deal with the complexities of multi-level patterns in human communications systems, the research group prefers an emphasis upon circular systems of interpersonal relations to a more conventional emphasis upon the behavior of individuals alone or single sequences in the interaction.

October 18, 1998