GET 35% OFF YOUR FIRST YEAR!

Limited time - use promo code: SPRING35 at checkout

Live stream preview

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Start your free trial

Already subscribed? Sign in

An Ecology of Mind

Biography • 1h 1m

Directed by Nora Bateson • Documentary • 2011 • 60 minutes

AN ECOLOGY OF MIND is a portrait of Gregory Bateson, celebrated anthropologist, philosopher, author, naturalist, and systems theorist. His story is lovingly told by his youngest daughter, Nora, with footage from Gregory's own films shot in the 1930s with his wife Margaret Mead in Bali and New Guinea, along with photographs, filmed lectures, and interviews.

Gregory Bateson was a man who studied the interrelationships of the complex systems we live in with scientific rigor and enormous integrity. His theories, such as 'the double bind' and 'the pattern which connects', continue to impact the fields of anthropology, psychiatry, information science, cybernetics, urban planning, biology, and ecology, challenging people to think in new ways.

Through this film, Nora Bateson sets out to show that his ideas are not just fodder for academic theory, but can help instruct a way of life. She presents his thinking using a richly personal perspective, focusing on the stories Bateson used to present his ideas and how the beauty of life itself provided the framework of his life's pursuits.

Tags
an ecology of mind, anthropology, anthropology and archaeology, bali, biography, biology, bullfrog films, critical thinking and ethics, cybernetics, double bind theory, ecology, environment, environmental anthropology, environmentalists, epistemology, expository, gregory bateson, history, information science, margaret mead, naturalist, nature1, new guinea, ovid, philosophers, philosophy, photographs psychiatry, psychology and mental health, s_0029, s_0079, s_0091, s_0218, s_0235, s_0488, s_0494, science and technology, scientists, systems theory, the pattern that connects, title_defgh, title_e, urban planning, womandirector

Up Next in Biography

  • Congo: The Doctor Who Saves Women
    52:11
    Congo: The Doctor Who Saves Women

    Congo: The Doctor Who Saves Women

    Directed by Angele Diabang • Documentary • 2014 • 52 minutes

    Dr. Denis Mukwege, the winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, is a gynecologist and the founder of Panzi, a hospital whose primary mission is treating women who have been raped - casualties in the Democratic Republic of Congo's decades-...

  • The Journey of Monalisa
    1:28:41
    The Journey of Monalisa

    The Journey of Monalisa

    Directed by Nicole Costa • Documentary • 2019 • 93 minutes

    Chilean-born performer and writer Iván Monalisa fully embraces his / her dual selves: scrappy, masculine Iván as well as diva, transvestite sex-worker Monalisa. A reunion with filmmaker Nicole Costa, Iván’s former college classmate, prov...

  • Lemebel
    1:36:19
    Lemebel

    Lemebel

    Directed by Joanna Reposi • Documentary • 2020 • 96 minutes

    Chilean performance artist, writer, anti-fascist, cross-dresser, and queer activist Pedro Lemebel (1952-2015) was a larger-than-life icon of his country’s gay liberation movement. In both his work and his life, he blended humor with spe...

×