Example of Double Binding?

Question

I need some examples of double binding for school, what is something that an instructor might say to me that would put me in a double binding situation, here is what wikipedia says about it. Thanks

The double bind is often misunderstood to be a simple Catch-22 situation, where the victim is trapped by two conflicting demands. While it is true that at the core of the double bind are two conflicting demands, the difference lies in how they are imposed upon the victim, what the victim's understanding of the situation is, and who imposes these demands upon the victim. Unlike the usual no-win situation, the victim is largely unaware of the exact nature of the paradoxical situation he or she is in. This is because a demand is imposed upon them by someone they regard with respect, and the demand itself is inherently impossible to fulfill. Bateson defines the double bind as follows (paraphrased):

1. The situation involves two or more persons, one of whom is designated, for the purposes of definition, as the "victim". The others are people who are in some way in a higher position to the victim, for example a figure of authority such as a parent whom the victim respects.
2. Repeated experience. The double bind is a recurrent theme in the experience of the victim and as such cannot be constituted as a single traumatic experience.
3. A primary injunction is imposed upon the victim by the other person in one of two forms: (a) Do "X", or I will punish you. (b) Do not do "X", or I will punish you. The punishment is assumed to be either the withdrawing of love, the expression of hate and anger, or abandonment resulting from the authority figure's expression of extreme helplessness.
4. A secondary injunction is imposed upon the victim that conflicts with the first at a higher and more abstract level. For example, "Do what I told you but only do it because you want to." However, it is not necessary that this injunction be expressed verbally.
5. If necessary, a tertiary injunction is imposed upon the victim to prevent them from escaping the dilemma.
6. Finally, Bateson states that the complete list of the previous requirements may be unnecessary in the event that the victim is already viewing their world in double bind patterns. Bateson goes on to give the general characteristics of such a relationship:
1. When the victim is involved in an intense relationship; that is, a relationship in which he feels it is vitally important that he discriminate accurately what sort of message is being communicated so that he may respond appropriately.
2. And, the victim is caught in a situation in which the other person in the relationship is expressing two orders of message and one of these denies the other.
3. And, the victim is unable to comment on the messages being expressed to correct his discrimination of what order of message to respond to, i.e., he cannot make a metacommunicative statement.

Answer 1

A perfect example is a wife asking her husband, "Do you love me more now than you did yesterday?" If the husband answers yes, then she concludes he did not love her very much yesterday. If he answers no then he is in trouble for not loving her more every day. If he stumbles or stops to think, (#3) on your above list, he is in trouble b/c he doesn't think about it. If he has a ready response, he's in trouble b/c he's got a "canned" answer and thinks she's neurotic. It seems there is no good way he can respond.

Answer 2

If you want examples of double binds that affect many and are familiar to most look in the Bible for situations fitting your (wikipedia's) descriptions. For example: God (the authoritative instructor) says "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth" Genesis 9:1, God says in many places that He is in control of all things, example Isaiah 45:5-7; then in another place it says that "a man should not touch a woman" 1 Corinthians 7:1,: and in other places that sex is sinful, Matthew 5:27-28,1 Corinthians 7:28. How are we to freely multiply and fill the earth? We start out with a double bind if we believe much of this book. You can find many other examples.

Good luck, Good health, Peace and Love!

Answer 3

women are envisioned to be being concerned, nurturing, gentle, diplomatic, non-confrontational - yet political leaders are envisioned to be hard, no longer project-free conversing, useful, militia minded, so that is not project-free for a woman in politics to be teach management traits, without breaking social expectancies approximately women's suitable behaviour :-)