ABSTRACT

But Bateson excludes himself from his own frame. After all, he was there, watching all this; he was part of it. Surely the patient had discussed his mother with some therapist at the hospital. Why would he expect her to respond to a warm gesture when they had had trouble touching each other for a lifetime? Or, did he expect her to respond? Was he perhaps showing off for the therapist? Or setting her up? Had someone convinced him that if he were warm and loving his mother would respond? Is his sense of timing seriously off? Was the mother lamely trying to recover from what she now saw as a gaffe? It is not so simple.