A double bind is a dilemma in which an individual receives conflicting demands with the following additional restrictions:
- Because the demands occur on different logical levels, the recipient can’t resolve the conflict.
- The recipient can’t acknowledge or comment on the conflict — not even within his own mind.
The phrase was coined as an environmental explanation for the development of schizophrenia in children.
The current revision of the Wikipedia page is a mess (it’s flagged for contradicting itself, which is pretty funny in an article that’s about contradictions), but on the discussion page user Etcetera offers a neat fictional example of a double bind: HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The programmed dictum of “always process information accurately” combined with the specific order to “keep this [true purpose of the mission] a secret from your fellow crew members” creates a schizophrenic situation.
HAL’s solution, of course, was to murder the crew.