As part of my explorations into the relationship between psychotherapy and culture, I have used some of Gregory Bateson’s conceptual work to help explain a systems understanding of addiction and his idea about the double bind theory. I have also studied his ideas about ecology of mind, which includes notions of a difference that makes a difference and patterns which connect. My contribution to these ideas is included here in a paper I presented at a Human Science conference. I am exploring how understanding systems, large and small can foster an ecological intelligence. This is how I conceive of the relationship between psychotherapy and culture as well.
http://psychotherapyandculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/A-DIFFERENCE-THAT-MAKES-A-DIFFERENCE.docx
I very much enjoyed the refinement of Bateson’s ideas about differences that make a difference. And his ideas of patterns that connect and the stories that bind those patterns to relevance was more than insightful. I was particularly taken with the transition from the exploration of Bateson’s ideas to their application in an educational setting. I think this could have been a presentation in and of itself. We need much deeper thinking about what education is, how it ideally reveals the patterns that connect and the embodied stories these patterns tell across multiple dimensions and disciplines. This was a provocative primer on how that might happen.
Thank you, Michael, for your thoughtful comment. Though I presented the” Going Large; Going Small” paper to a group of faculty and doctoral students, the curriculum I proposed was for teachers of K-12 schools because they are in the most important position to be able to shift the focus of early education away from the current inherited predetermined curriculum categories. Critical and systems thinking enable us to think across most of these current categories.