Customer Reviews

Gregory Bateson the Legacy of a Scientist

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been interested in Gregory Bateson, ever since I came into contact with his work when I studied NLP. I'm still intrigued to find out how exactly he approached science, how he thought about doing scientific work. While this book gives the reader an acceptable overview of Gregory Bateson's roots and his life, I was particularly disappointed with the section discussing his life since 1970, the year he gave the Korzybski memorial lecture. In these last 10 years of his live he published "Steps to an ecology of mind" (1972), "Mind and Nature (1977) and "Where Angels fear to Tread". Paradoxally, this author only met Bateson in 1971 and must have more details about these 10 last years, during which Bateson taught at the University of California at Santa Cruz (1972-1979) and influenced a whole generation of students at the Kresge College. These last 10 years of his life only get some 25 pages from this author. In contrast, the history of his family and youth get over 100 pages. Also, for someone who has had the chance to meet Bateson extensively in order to write this biography, we don't learn much about Bateson's real thoughts, motivations. All by all this is a pretty dry book. This book has the merit of existing, yet for me, the author missed some opportunities here.

While I recommend everyone interested in social sciences, communication, anthropology or psychology to read Bateson's books, there isn't much to learn from this book by reading "about Bateson".

Patrick E.C. Merlevede - author of "7 Steps to Emotional intelligence"