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AN ECOLOGY OF MIND
Gregory Bateson
Bateson believed that the whole world is connected by the relationships between things.
Everyone and everything is part of a network. This network includes not only physical things
but also our minds, thoughts and actions.
Everything in the network is connected and information passes around the network
continuously. Every point in the network takes the information, uniquely
interprets it, acts on it and thus in some way changes it. Bateson said
therefore that we should not consider the parts of the system as separate
entities constituting the whole. We should instead ask: ‘What is the
relationship between them’.
Because if we fail to consider the relationships, we miss the intricacies of connection
that shape how the system behaves and understands. This is part of thinking creatively and seeing
things differently. It allows us to make better sense of what is happening. And in doing so we then
become able to ask: ‘What are the things that are important to us and what are the things that
we can allow ourselves to change’?