Abstract

The contribution of Gregory Bateson to psychiatry starts through the joint research, developed together with Jurgen Ruesch, on the psychiatric communication structure. After this initiation, Gregory Bateson will develop his studies towards the rethinking and the revision of schizophrenia, prioritizing the epistemological approach to the psychotic phenomena. Between 1949 and 1962, Bateson will construct a theory on schizophrenia known as “double‐bind”, based on the observation of the communication habits and logical structures of the psychotic patients and their relations with the family environment. His last contribution to psychiatry is the treat of the publication of Perceval Narrative, an autobiographic novel written in 1830 by an English gentleman recovered from a schizophrenia episode.