Gregory Bateson

Anthropologist and systems thinker: the ecology of mind and the pathologies of purposive thinking (James, in conversation, Aug–Oct 2026; unverified).

Listed in the departure-in-place lineage (2026-10-26) without a gloss. No session has researched Bateson yet. Possible connections, unexplored and Claude's guess only: his critique of conscious purpose next to post-purpose-towns; mind as a property of ecological loops next to the self-maintaining-loop account of a subject in thread-mind-and-machine and relational-ontology.

Disposition: stub for research purposes. Part of philosophy-of-technology.

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How James uses the double bind (March 2026)

He applies Bateson's double bind to the professional class (must change, cannot change, cannot leave the field) and takes from Bateson that naming and sitting in the bind makes it transformative. See pmc-double-bind (https://departurein.place/learning-to-need-each-other/).