Schismogenesis: Seeing How We’ve Got Nothing in Common
The term schismogenesis was coined in 1935 by the anthropologist Gregory Bateson. Nowadays Bateson is best remembered as being married to the vastly more famous anthropologist Margaret Mead. But in his time Bateson was a public intellectual and innovative thinker, and we still use some of his ideas today, even though he no longer tends to be credited as the originator of the ideas.
In his book Steps to an Ecology of Mind, Bateson defines schismogenesis as a “creation of division.”
The term derives from the Greek words σχίσμα skhisma, “cleft,” (borrowed into English as schism), and γένεσις genesis, “generation” or “creation.”
Schismogenesis is “creation of division.”
Dr. Bateson claimed that we human beings define ourselves and each other through schismogenesis.
Remember: Bateson was an anthropologist. He was describing schismogenesis as something endemic to the human mind. Professor Bates was not attempting to fix the world with his idea of schismogenesis. He was trying to describe the world and how it works so that we can better see ourselves.
Schismogenesis is our method of self-differentiation and group identification.
We humans tend to find polar opposites and then attempt to define things by…
