"There are few things as toxic as a bad metaphor. You can't think without metaphors." -- Mary Catherine Bateson
Mary Catherine Bateson (born December 8, 1939) is an American writer and cultural anthropologist.
A graduate of the Brearley School, Bateson is the daughter of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson. Since 1960, she has been married to Barkev Kassarjian, a professor of business management at Babson College. They have one daughter, Sevanne Margaret (born 1969), an actress who works professionally under the name Sevanne Martin.
Dr. Bateson is a distinguished author in her field with many published monographs. Among Dr. Bateson's many books is With a Daughter's Eye: A Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, a recounting of her upbringing by two famous parents.
Mary Catherine Bateson is a fellow of the International Leadership Forum and president of the Institute for Intercultural Studies in New York.
"Fear is not a good teacher. The lessons of fear are quickly forgotten.""Fluidity and discontinuity are central to the reality in which we live.""Goals too clearly defined can become blinkers.""Human beings do not eat nutrients, they eat food.""No matter how happily a woman may be married, it always pleases her to discover that there is a really nice man who wishes she were not.""Of any stopping place in life, it is good to ask whether it will be a good place from which to go on as well as a good place to remain.""Sharing is sometimes more demanding than giving.""The capacity to combine commitment with skepticism is essential to democracy.""The family is changing, not disappearing. We have to broaden our understanding of it, look for the new metaphors.""The timing of death, like the ending of a story, gives a changed meaning to what preceded it."