double bind

English

Etymology

Coined by English anthropologist, linguist, semiotician and cyberneticist Gregory Bateson.

Noun

double bind (plural double binds)

1. A dilemma in which someone receives contradictory instructions and cannot act on either.
   • 2021 September 3, Helen Lewis, “The Problem With Being Cool About Sex”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The Atlantic‎^[1], Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 24 April 2026:

     She is deciding, right then and there, if she wants to be seen naked on the internet, forever, an object of desire as well as derision. […] In a sense, as Angel notes, the scene dramatizes “the double bind in which women exist: that saying no may be difficult, but so too is saying yes.”

Further reading

• “double bind”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “double bind”, in Merriam-Webster Online, Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 1996–present.
• “double bind”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
• “double bind”, in Collins English Dictionary, 2011–present.
• “double bind” (US) / “double bind” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.