what exactly does the phrase CATCH 22 mean and where does it come from?

Question

my mom keeps getting UTI's and then developed c-diss. and everyone uses the phrase Catch 22 ?????

Answer 1

"Catch 22" basically means a no-win situation or a double bind. It was first introduced by Joseph Heller, the author of Catch-22. Catch-22, the novel is a critique of bureaucratic operation and reasoning, as well as the folly of patriotism and honour. A magazine excerpt from the novel was originally published as Catch-18, but Heller's publisher requested that he change the title of the novel to Catch-22 so it wouldn't be confused with another recently published World War II novel, Leon Uris's Mila 18. It's a very enlightening novel.

Answer 2

Catch-22 is a term, coined by Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22, describing a general situation in which an individual has to accomplish two actions which are mutually dependent on the other action being completed first[1]. A familiar example of this circumstance occurs in the context of job searching. In moving from school to a career, one may encounter a Catch-22 where one cannot get a job without work experience, but one cannot gain experience without a job.

Catch-22 situations are sometimes called vicious circles or the chicken or the egg problems.

Answer 3

Catch 22 is a novel, a very good one. (and it was north africa that Yosarian's bomber squad was stationed) Catch-22 is a situation where there is no logical out. You could only see major major major when he was not in, and when he was in, you couldn't see him. To be let out of the army because you were crazy, you had to ask to be let out because you were crazy, but anyone that knew enough to ask was not crazy by definition. Everything on the face of it seems logical, but the logic is crazy, twisted, so nothing is logical. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle has a certain catch-22 quality-you can only tell where a particle is by looking at it but looking at it makes it move so it is no longer there. Quantum physics has a similar problem, you can't tell which of two possible paths a thing has taken until you look, and whichever way you look makes the particle choose a specific path, so by looking you determine the outcome.

Answer 4

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.

Answer 5

this comes from the novel Catch 22 and it is used to represent a paradox. The actual "catch 22" in the book was that soldiers who didn't want to fight were considered sane and capable of duty and soldiers who did want to fight should were insane but since they wanted to fight they would get to. Therefore, everyone has to fight no matter what.

Answer 6

Catch-22 came from a novel by Joseph Heller. It basically stated if you are crazy if you willingly go into combat, but if you seek professional help for said insanity then you cannot be insane and thus must still continue flying your combat mission.

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9039910/Joseph-Heller

Answer 7

i'm not sure where the phrase came from, but what they're referring to is that your mother kept getting UTI's, which required antibiotic therapy. c.diff colitis is essentially caused by the use of too many antibiotics. so what they're saying is that the treating one problem caused another. kind of like saying that there's always a consequence/catch.

Answer 8

It was first used in the Joseph Heller novel by the same name.

Answer 9

Sorry, but what is c-diss?

Answer 10

when two sitituations work off each other.