The Sacred in Psychotherapeutic Practice: Ethical Reflections from Bateson and Bateson

Abstract

In the last stage of his life, Gregory Bateson worked on a book that eventually became two: Mind and Nature (1979) and Angels Fear: Towards an Epistemology of the Sacred (1988). The latter was completed by his daughter Margaret Bateson Mead, after the death of her father in 1980. In Mind and Nature, Bateson compares evolution with the nature of the mental process, concluding that there are patterns that connect thoughts, ideas, and the evolutionary process: they are systems made up of interacting parts that are organized based on relations of similarities or differences. This organization forms a unit (or mind) that has the capacity of responding to information in selfcorrecting ways. Later, in Angels Fear, he wonders about the way in which systems take care of that integrity, and why that is so important. Bateson & Bateson point out that on certain occasions communication is undesirable because it alters the nature of ideas and thus of history, threatening the integrity of the unit. On many occasions what we have learned in our own history and which is manifested in our responses, voices, rites, sacraments, routines and creative acts constitute sacred areas for our lives and therefore we learn not to touch, and keep them in the unsaid. This article reflects on how this understanding of the sacred can have important implications for psychotherapy. These ideas are illustrated with two psychotherapy stories.