# Double Bind **Domain:** Psychology / Communication / Social control **Doc Type:** Canonical concept node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition A double bind is a communicative situation in which a person receives incompatible demands and cannot satisfy one without violating the other. ## Mechanism and Significance Commands such as being ordered to act spontaneously make compliance self-defeating. Anxiety grows when the contradiction is hidden and every response can be judged as failure. ## Evidence Boundary Not every conflict or difficult choice is a double bind. The concept requires incompatible expectations operating within the same relationship or frame. ## Relationships [[wiki/Social Control|Social Control]] · [[wiki/Cognitive Agency|Cognitive Agency]] · [[wiki/Language|Language]] ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts > “Alan Watts described a social double-bind game. Society asks people to "be natural" while also controlling themselves, creating impossible demands. Making peace with these contradictions eases anxiety.” > **— Bryant McGill**, *Opening Your Genius Through Language, Abstraction, and Manifesting - Livestream (Jan 2016)* [[reminders/Cognitive Agency/Impossible Social Demands Create a Double Bind by Bryant McGill|Impossible Social Demands Create a Double Bind by Bryant McGill]]