Mary Catherine Bateson (1939–2021)

I find it vexing as ever to attempt a summary of Batesonian thought, partly a reflection of how unorthodox Batesonian cybernetics is to that Cartesian outlook originally presented throughout my education, and partly from the conviction that all the myriad parts of Bateson's thought are equally relevant. Any attempted summary threatens to bulk so large as to suggest it would be easier to simply re-read Bateson.

Perhaps it suffices to emphasise two points. One is Bateson's use of metaphoric show more explanation, on the grounds the metaphor is the logic of biological life. While Western science predominates and is "pre-occupied with quantity, the artificiality of experiment, and the dualism of Descartes," [10] its logic proceeds mechanistically, linearly, empirically. The second point is that Bateson strives always to understand the living world as a "necessary unity" -- a world of mental process, in which he locates the sacred. Bateson leans upon Jung's conception of Creatura and Pleroma, not occurring rather encountered, and always in tandem. The distinction is hierarchic not substantive: Creatura is a level up from that of Pleroma, a higher logical type.

Creatura and Pleroma interface epistemologically, are not ontologically separate substances. Their boundary is best understood as a bridge across which information passes, our understanding of the world comprising both together. Seeing the world this way avoids the chief errors of Cartesian thought's insufficient holism: reducing the world to mechanical chains of causation (in which mind is alienated, consigned to an illusion); or, painting ourselves into corners from which we extract ourselves only through recourse to supernaturalism (explanations lying "outside the body" as miracle).

Building upon his unified outlook, Bateson in Angels Fear looks toward further explication of the natural world and life within it, and for a "syntax of consciousness" -- formal rules relating various disparate concepts falsely separated by our predominant dualism. An emphasis upon relations, as opposed to referents or "things", is the way forward. Structure is itself a means of communication, so structure is then an informational idea, and can be causal without having a separate "existence" as supernatural accounts would require. There is no ghost in the machine, rather a causal influence of structure inherent in the machine. "A model of the interaction between structure and process underlies much of the argument of this book, and it will be critical to understand the relationship between these notions and the problems of knowledge and description." [37]

Bateson helpfully points out the value of religion as opposed to science, without arguing any specific religion should replace Cartesian science. "Art, like religion, represents an area of experience that privileges Creatural ways of thinking" [198] in contrast to the Pleroma-limited approach of mechanistic science. "Certainly through human history, and perhaps necessarily into the future, religion has been the only kind of cognitive system that could provide a model for the integration and complexity of the natural world, because these are the characteristics that must persistently elude even the most meticulous efforts to [merely] describe." But again, the way forward includes both, never one over the other. "Apart from Creatura, nothing can be known; apart from Pleroma, there is nothing there to know." [200]

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I suggested in my 2011 review of Bateson's Mind and Nature that this later effort, Angels Fear is inspirational recapitulation. That gloss was from memory and after a recent re-reading I'd amend that to: it is indeed recapitulation but not only that. There is a good deal here that while not offering new arguments, at least considers old material from the stance of reassessment and implication rather than mere summary, shifting the discussion to those questions Bateson wanted to examine next. Just as importantly, fully grasping the arguments here relies on a level of familiarity with Batesonian thought unobtainable from this book alone. Yet despite these reservations, Angels Fear served me well as introduction to Batesonian cybernetics, and could do for others equally well.

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Originally begun by Gregory alone, but its completion interrupted by illness: Gregory requested the collaboration of anthropologist daughter Mary Catherine, originally as assistant, whose contributions evolved to that of co-author, eventually ushering the manuscript to completion after Gregory's death.

Includes a Glossary, with entries slightly edited in places from those taken from Mind and Nature; a consideration of sources with interesting commentary on unpublished manuscripts; and Index. show less

This is the study of five artists engaged in the act of creation that engages us all -- the composition of our lives. Each of us has worked by improvisation, discovering the shape of our creation along the way, rather than pursuing a vision already defined. Thus Mary Catherine Bateson begins her extraordinary book, in which she uses the complex and varied lives of four women, as well as her own life, to explore the work in progress -- the life creatively lived.

This book was mostly interesting and not that enjoyable to read. The author shared lots of interesting facts and thoughts about her famous parents’ lives. However, I am left frustrated in knowing all that she certainly left out. She wrote this as a scientist and/or anthropologist would, not clearly and openly sharing her feelings about them. So, the reader is left guessing about many issues.

I appreciate the insightful reviews here on GoodReads. I wanted to like this book more than I did for the reasons others have articulated. It's dated and its flaws more apparent now than they would have been 25 years ago. Our lives are not monolithic, but patchwork, and I think this holds true for most people now - men and women - in ways we need to explore but in an atmosphere less rarefied.
Plus side: this book stimulated my imagination to think about the lives of 5 of my dear friends and show more what a book would look like if I wrote about their lives; it was exhilarating. What stories there are to be told!
Still, there are insights in nearly every chapter which are graceful. There is an honoring of the rituals of homemaking, for example, "There is real work involved in housekeeping, in providing food and shelter, but even if we learn to minimize the mechanics of these jobs, the tasks of homemaking cannot be eliminated for their value goes beyond the mechanical. We enact and strengthen our relationships by performing dozens of small, practical rituals, setting the table, making coffee, raking the lawn - giving and receiving material tokens..."

(note to self: good quotes on p.55,97, bottom of 105) show less