Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology

Bateson provides a personal account of how he developed his conceptual tools and intellectual habits. He reflects on the balance between loose and strict thinking and how scientific progress often oscillates between exploratory ideas and rigorous conceptualization. This process is framed through both his own experiences and broader observations of how science advances.

Bateson credits his father, the geneticist William Bateson, for instilling in him a deep fascination with patterns and the interconnectedness of natural phenomena. Despite his father’s ambivalence toward philosophy and logic, his early studies on symmetry and segmentation in biology left a profound influence on the younger Bateson. This foundational perspective led him to explore analogies across disciplines, guided by the belief that similar principles underlie different systems, from biology to anthropology.

Bateson describes how a strong belief in the unity of natural processes encouraged him to apply scientific principles learned in biology to social systems. For example, while studying the Iatmul tribe in New Guinea, he used the biological concept of segmentation to understand their symmetrical social organization. By comparing Iatmul clans and age grades to segmented animals, he explored how their relationships lacked hierarchy but relied on lateral sanctions and symmetrical opposition. This analogy allowed him to identify patterns of imitation and schismogenesis, where differentiation and imitation coexisted dynamically.

Bateson also addresses his early struggles with abstract concepts like ethos (the morality, beliefs, and desires of a group) and eidos (the distinctive characteristics of a group), as he initially treated them as concrete entities. However, through experimentation, he realized these terms were better understood as perspectives or lenses for analyzing cultural phenomena. His ultimate insight was that cultural elements (e.g., rituals or social practices) can simultaneously be analyzed structurally, pragmatically, or emotionally, depending on the observer’s focus.

The chapter concludes with a broader reflection on scientific methodology. Bateson advocates for using analogies from established sciences to refine hunches and for labeling unfinished ideas in ways that signal their exploratory nature to future investigators. Through this dual approach, Bateson demonstrates how interdisciplinary thinking can advance understanding in any field.

As the title suggests, this chapter discusses the concept of national character, the challenges it presents, and its implications for morale and international relations. Bateson begins by addressing criticisms of the concept, such as the view that differences among nations stem from circumstances rather than inherent character. Bateson counters this by arguing that learned behaviors, shaped by context and past experience, require an understanding of national character.

He outlines barriers to identifying national character, such as subcultural differences, melting-pot heterogeneity, deviant individuals, societal changes, and shifting national boundaries. Bateson argues that despite these complexities, national character can be understood through the patterns of relationships within a community. Complementary behaviors (e.g., dominance-submission) and symmetrical behaviors (e.g., competition) emerge as key patterns which reflect the ways individuals interact and adapt within stable societies. These patterns are interdependent and shape collective identity.

Bateson emphasizes that patterns of national character can differ significantly. For example, he contrasts symmetrical motivation in the United States and England—where challenges evoke effort—with the complementary dominance-submission hierarchy of Germany, where dominance suppresses overt submissiveness. He argues that cultural values shape behavior differently across societies.

Bateson then applies these insights to morale and war. He argues that effective morale-building aligns with cultural patterns: Americans respond to challenges when paired with self-affirmation, while the English thrive on resilience through adversity. In planning for postwar peace, Bateson emphasizes the incompatibility of symmetrical Allied cultures with Germany’s complementary structure. Instead, he advocates for treaties that leverage shared principles or mutual roles instead of dominance. He calls for systematic research into these differences to inform strategies for cooperation, peacebuilding, and understanding among nations.

Bateson explores the unique steady-state value system of Balinese society, contrasting it with the schismogenic dynamics he previously analyzed in the Iatmul tribe. Schismogenesis involves mutually reinforcing behavioral cycles that can either be symmetrical, as seen in competition or rivalry, or complementary, such as in dominance-submission dynamics. Unlike the Iatmul, Bateson argues that Balinese society avoids the cumulative and escalating interactions through distinct cultural practices and psychological conditioning.

Bateson revisits the concept of ethos, which he initially defined as a cultural system of emotional and instinctual organization. While this framework proved effective for understanding Iatmul culture, he finds that it’s less applicable in Bali. Balinese society actively prevents the development of schismogenic cycles through deliberate social mechanisms. For instance, in child-rearing, parents often disengage from interactions that might lead to emotional escalation. When a child becomes overly excited, the mother withdraws attention, effectively curbing the interaction’s intensity. Rivalrous behaviors are similarly discouraged through indirect, non-confrontational engagement.

This ethos of balance carries into adult life. Bateson notes that Balinese art, music, and rituals are characterized by continuous, formal progressions rather than climactic resolutions. Moreover, social conflicts are managed through formalized agreements that prevent direct confrontation, such as the practice of agreeing to avoid contact with someone after a quarrel. Hierarchical structures, including the caste system, are rigid and non-competitive, ensuring that individuals cannot challenge or alter their social positions. These cultural norms, Bateson notes, emphasize harmony and discourage escalation.

The Balinese ethos prioritizes stability, spatial and social orientation, and group cohesion over individual ambition or competition. Economic behavior also reflects this value system, since wealth is accumulated primarily for ceremonial purposes rather than personal gain. Artistic and ritual activities are undertaken for their intrinsic value rather than for material rewards. Social rules are seen as intrinsic to the natural order rather than as mandates imposed by authority, which fosters a culture of careful adherence without blame or guilt for transgressions.

Bateson contrasts this steady-state model with schismogenic systems like the Iatmul, where escalating interactions require external intervention or environmental limits to maintain stability. This steady-state ethos challenges deterministic theories of social opposition and demonstrates how cultural practices can shape human behavior to sustain societal stability.

Bateson examines the relationship between art, style, and the nonverbal communication of grace and integration. He begins with a philosophical exploration of Aldous Huxley’s notion of grace as an animal-like simplicity and unity of mind, lost to humans due to self-consciousness and purpose. Bateson argues that art represents humanity’s striving for grace, as it is an expression of success in achieving psychic integration and a response to its failure. Each culture, he suggests, has its own characteristic version of grace.

Bateson’s central question is how art encodes information about psychic integration. He rejects interpretations of art based on explicit narratives or symbolic meanings. Instead, he considers how the form and style of an artwork reveal the cultural and psychological premises that underly its creation. He uses the concept of redundancy to describe how patterns within art provide information about the broader cultural and mental systems in which they are embedded. Meaning, he argues, lies not in the message or mythology but in the transformation rules that guide the artist’s creation. By examining these rules, one can discern the relationship between the artwork and the cultural logic it reflects.

The chapter also discusses the multilayered nature of consciousness and unconsciousness. Bateson emphasizes the importance of primary process thinking—unconscious, metaphoric, and associative logic—as fundamental to art. However, he critiques Freudian interpretations that frame unconsciousness as repressive. Instead, he argues that the unconscious is a necessary, creative foundation. Consciousness, limited in scope and selective in focus, provides only partial truths, and art functions as a corrective by offering a more systemic view of the mind’s integration.

Bateson applies these ideas to Balinese art through the analysis of a painting by Ida Bagus Djati Sura. The artwork, he notes, is characterized by intricate patterns, turbulence, and serenity, which reveals a profound interplay between freedom and precision. Bateson concludes that the painting offers a lesson in systemic wisdom. He believes that neither turbulence nor serenity can stand alone but are two opposing poles of human experience. Through creating and engaging with such art, Bateson argues, humans explore and affirm the necessity of integration, achieving a level of insight that is not available through verbal communication.

Bateson synthesizes the insights explored in the previous chapters. He argues for a deeper form of interdisciplinarity, one focused on structural and relational analogies across fields like biology, linguistics, and anthropology. Opposing conventional interdisciplinary research, which relies on specialists (such as an ecologist consulting a geologist), Bateson advocates for studying shared patterns and relationships. He compares the structural relationships between plant anatomy (such as leaves and stems) with that between linguistic elements (such as nouns and verbs). He thus emphasizes that both are defined by relational contexts rather than inherent properties.

Bateson then reflects on his early work on schismogenesis, which initially focused on progressive interactions as drivers of cultural and biological evolution, and how his perspective shifted to emphasize context as a dynamic system that evolves in tandem with its components. By 1942, he notes, he saw contextual structures as messages themselves. Then, he turned to the study of cultural patterns in spectatorship or dominance, and linked individual behavior to larger systemic processes.