Our Own Metaphor: A Personal Account of a Conference on the Effects of Conscious Purpose on Human Adaptation

by Mary Catherine Bateson

Based on a conference held at Burg Wartenstein, Austria in 1968, organized by anthropologist Gregory Bateson and observed and interpreted by Mary Catherine Bateson. This classic on the mismatch between natural processes and human mental capacities and about the needed process of epistemological change was first published in 1972 (Knopf) and is reissued with a wonderful new foreword and afterword by the author. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

344 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Mary Catherine Bateson (born December 8, 1939) is an American writer and cultural anthropologist.

A graduate of the Brearley School, Bateson is the daughter of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson.

Bateson is a noted author in her field with many published monographs. Among Bateson's books is With a Daughter's Eye: A Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, a recounting of her upbringing by two famous parents. She has taught at Harvard, Amherst, and George Mason University, among others.

Mary Catherine Bateson is a fellow of the International Leadership Forum and was president of the Institute for Intercultural Studies in New York until 2010.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Catherine Bateson was the scribe for an interdiciplinary conference on systems theory and human adaptation, organized by her father, Gregory, in the early 70's. Interesting to see how the work of this small group has presaged the recent "breakthroughs" in complexity theory, ecological science, and systems thinking.

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Follow along with a 1968 interdisciplinary conference on society's attempted control of ecological processes, human-and-more meta-cognitive capacities, cargo cults and state machines and ... it's quite lovely, and unresolved, and a bit cringe in details. Should society be much more or much less oriented towards change? Why is it so hard for individuals to change habits of thought? How much can systems models, cybernetic language, incorporate change? The answers aren't so much as riding along the swells of debate.