Double Bind

Something to avoid as much in programming and documentation as in other forms of human interaction. When you hear a comment something like "it makes me crazy," look for a double bind.

According to Carlos Sluzki the double bind has the following characteristics:

1. Two or more persons
2. Repeated experience
3. A primary negative injunction
4. A secondary injunction conflicting with the first at a more abstract level, and like the first enforced by punishments or signals which threaten survival
5. A tertiary negative injunction prohibiting the victim from escaping from the field
6. Finally, the complete set of ingredients is no longer necessary when the victim has learned to perceive his universe in double bind patterns.

• Sluzki, Carlos E., Janet Beavin, Alejandro Tarnopolsky, and Eliseo Veron, "Transactional Disqualification: Research on the Double Bind." The Interactional View: Studies at the Mental Research Institute, Palo Alto, 1965-1974. Ed. Paul Watzlawick and John H. Weakland. New York: Norton, 1977. 208-227.

Paul Watzlawick has described four variations on the theme:

1. Expecting spontaneity
2. Chastising a person for a correct perception of the outside world
3. Expecting a person to have feelings other than those actually experienced
4. Demanding and prohibiting at the same time

• Watzlawick, Paul., Janet Beavin Bavelas., and Don D. Jackson. Pragmatics of Human Communication: A Study of Interactional Patterns, Pathologies, and Paradoxes. New York: Norton, 1967.

Source: Guillaume, P. "The Double Bind: The Intimate Tie Between Behavior and Communication." URL: http://imaginewhatif.com/Pages/double_bind.html

-- JonathanSmith - 18 Feb 2003