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The Beginning of a New Epistemology: In Memoriam, Gregory Bateson (1904-1980)
Edited by Monika Silvia Broecker and Georg Ivanovas
Preamble
This is a Batesonian-type conversation between the authors (V. Kenny as "V" and L. Scarino as "L") which reflects upon, and synthesises, some of the passages in the therapy process they conducted some years ago. It is less "meta-" and more "-logue" than the Bateson metalogues because, where he actually wrote both the "father" and the "daughter" lines, here we have collaborated to produce a four-handed text which is focused on some of the issues of doing psychotherapy with a "twin". We hope it is clear that what follows may be a relevant way for understanding any number of people in any network of conversations, be it couples, families, or organisations.
Metalogue
V: Why didn't you bring your sister again this time?
L: Because I wanted to talk to you alone ...
V: OK. What's on your mind?
L: Well, the question of personal change, how difficult it is, especially being a twin sister.
V: Being one of a twin set does have its advantages in doing psychotherapy.
L: How do you work that out?
V: To begin with, I see twins as a "double description " as Bateson called it, and so you are one half of a double description, but at the same time you are not and cannot ever be a "single description".
L: You mean that I can't be a "proper individual"?!!
V: No, I mean that you have the advantage of knowing that the different "parts" of discourse, the different positions in the networks of conversations, all combine to generate the emergent identity of the conversation that is going on between you.
L: Parts and wholes again?
V: Yes, in a way that creates an ever-present awareness of the fact that our "individual" point of view cannot ever stand alone.
L: So you mean like Bateson's notion of "mind" as going beyond the individual skull and extending externally along the whole communicative circuit?
V: Yes, I like to call it the "exosomatic mind" . To put it alternatively, I can say that being "out of your head" is the only proper way to be "in your right mind".