“Minimum Constellation Necessary for Type Confusion”: Letters to Norbert Wiener

Gregory Bateson (1904–1980), one of the most original ethnographic theorists of the twentieth century, contributed to such fields as visual anthropology, psychotherapy, the theory of games and fantasy, second-order cybernetics, and social constructivism. His books include Balinese Character: A Photographic Analysis, with Margaret Mead (New York Academy of Sciences, 1942); Communication: The Social Matrix of Psychiatry, with Jurgen Ruesch (W.W. Norton, 1951); and Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology (University of Chicago Press, 1972).