What does the phrase "catch 22" mean?

Answer 1

Catch 22 refers to the US army clause 22 which states that all persons with mental issues should be removed from active combat upon request. However requesting removal from active combat is a sign of mental stability as it is the self preservation function of the brain working...... Hence a Catch 22 situation

Answer 2

Catch-22 is a 1961 novel by the American author Joseph Heller. It was adapted into a feature film of the same name in 1970.
Catch-22 is, among other things, a general critique of bureaucratic operation and reasoning. As a result of its specific use in the book, the phrase "Catch 22" has come into common use to mean a no-win situation or a double bind of any type.

Within the book, "catch-22" is introduced as a military rule, the self-contradictory circular logic of which, for example, prevents anyone from avoiding combat missions. In Heller's own words:

Answer 3

A catch 22 situation is when you are in a no win situation ie. everything that you do will have negative outcomes.

It comes from a novel of the same name "Catch 22" written by the American author Joseph Heller in 1961. It was made into a movie in 1970.

The novel follows Captain John Yossarian, a fictional U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier, and a number of other characters during World War II. Most events in the book occur while the airmen of the Fighting 256th (or "two to the fighting eighth power") Squadron are based on the island of Pianosa, west of Italy. Many events in the book are described repeatedly from differing points of view, so that the reader learns more about the event with each iteration. The pacing of Catch-22 is frenetic, its tenor is intellectual, and its humor is largely absurd, but with grisly moments of realism interspersed. The Modern Library ranked Catch-22 as number 7 on its list of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.

In the December 1987 issue of Playboy magazine, a chapter that had been cut from the novel was published under the title "Yossarian Survives." It featured a physical-education instructor named Rogoff. Heller wrote a sequel to Catch-22, entitled Closing Time, which was published in 1994.

Answer 4

It's slightly different from the "Damned if you do, damned if you don't" 'No-Win' situation. Though that was the original usage of the term in the novel Catch-22. It's now pretty much accepted to mean a certain type of No-Win situation, one where circular reasoning make it a no-win.

Catch-22 is a no-win because it's impossible to carry out the steps neccesary to extrcate oneself. In the case of needing to do two things to remedy the situation, both cannot be started until the other is completed. The situation can be circular on a larger scale (I had one where I needed a bank account to get health insurance, reisdency to get a bank account and, yep, halth insurance to get residency). There's some very important catch-22s. For instance, we know the concept "money makes money". The opposite poverty trap is a classic catch-22. Likewise, for homeless people who need money to get a home, need a job to make money, need an address to get a job and need a home to have an address.

Answer 5

What Does Catch 22 Mean

Answer 6

A phrase made popular by the book, a Catch-22 is a situation where desired solutions are impossible due to illogical rules.

It is VERY similar to the phrase: 'damned if you do, damned if you don't'.

History class was a catch-22. Either you completed hours of work or you got scolded and hurt from neglecting it. Or you had to pay for someone else to do it. There seemed to be no desirable option.

Answer 7

A number of people have mentioned the book 'Catch 22' by Joseph Heller, however nobody has used the example from it. Have they not read it? The book is about US airmen flying bombing missions in the Mediterranean during the WWII.

This is the dilemma Yossarian, the principal character in the book, finds himself in: I quote, "Let me see if I've got this straight: in order to be grounded, I've got to be crazy and I must be crazy to keep flying. But if I ask to be grounded, that means I'm not crazy any more and I have to keep flying." This is a Catch 22 situation.

Answer 8

A catch 22 is when you need to do A first in order to do B. But in order to do A you need to do B first. It is therefore impossible to do either A or B.

Do you know the rhyme "There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza"? That's a great example of a catch 22 situation.

Answer 9

Its a situation where to do one thing maybe mutually dependant on doing the other.
For example you may be leaving school and looking for a job but you can't get a job without any job experience. You are then in a "catch 22" situation.

Answer 10

No one has it right yet, but I DO know the answer. Catch 22 is an expression that describes the following:

It is possible to get a discharge from the military if you are insane. However, if you take steps to to make a case that you are indeed insane, particularly in a combat situation, this is to be construed that you are NOT insane, that you are behaving in a very logical and well thought out way. If you take the opposite tack, and behave in such as way that would show that you ARE insane, but unaware of it (by showing that you find the stress of combat a highly pleasurable experience), you are then considered the ideal candidate for your assignment.

The military is obliged by simple morality to provide a means for mentally ill individuals to seek an environment where they have some hope of recovery. The military is obliged by pragmatic necessity to keep this escape route closed as tightly as possible to avoid a mass exodus by those distressed by an inherently severely distressing situation. The latter trumps the former by virtue of catch 22.