Communication in the Cold War

I feel the need to situate Communication, the Social Matrix of Psychiatry (1951) in its historical context, as a document of the Cold War. Bateson & Ruesch’s book argues for the uniqueness of the American subject, whose conception of freedom and creativity are incubated in an advanced technological context. This American (social-)psychological subject differs from the European and is embedded within a context in which communication is valued as a fundamental human trait: “communication is the substance of common being”. For Bateson-Ruesch, American communications technology is an extension of the historical democratic process and is a development on the social models of Europe (which are hidebound by irrational tradition) and the Soviet model (which is totalitarian and which engenders conformity). Bateson-Ruesch accord technological advancement, particularly communication technologies, prime agency in a broader historical and cultural process which sees outdated epistemologies superseded by the communications model.

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