Life imitates art. Art imitates Life. Art is a rich medium to teach aspects of the human condition including abnormal behavior (psychopathology). On this page, a form of abnormal behavior is illustrated through music.
In the mid-1950’s, theorists believed schizophrenia resulted from dysfunctional familial communication such as the double bind interaction (Bateson, Jackson, Haley & Weakland, 1956). Gregory Bateson proposed that schizophrenia was an expression of social interactions in which the individual is repeatedly exposed to conflicting messages:
A child receives two conflicting messages about their relationship when mother tells her son, Norman, that she loves him, while at the same time turning her head away in disgust
While eventually debunked as a cause of schizophrenia, the double bind theory remains important to the understanding of family dynamics and therapy.
The video below is an artistic expression of a double bind: disturbing pictures and video clips set to the melodic lyrics of a top-10 power ballad by one of the greatest hard rock bands in music history. WARNING: Similar to the child in the above example, watching this video may be unsettling to some viewers.
On almost every slide, there’s a link (33 total links) between the film depicted and other pictures. Try your luck to see how many you can identify before you peek at the answers! If they appear and disappear too quickly, feel free to pause the video. It’s also worthwhile to re-watch the video after you review the answers.
| Scoring Key for Educational Video | |
| Number Correct | Standing |
| 0-8 | Go home to your mother, Norman! |
| 9-16 | You’re gonna need a bigger boat! |
| 17-24 | Good Ash, bad Ash (Groovy!) |
| 25-32 | It’s alive! It’s alive! |
| All 33 | When someone asks you if you’re a God, you say YES! |