The Bateson Research Projects, then the Mental Research Institute, and later the Brief Therapy Center of the MRI are the birth place of numerous seminal theoretical constructs, and clinical techniques which form the bedrock of Interactionally oriented Family and Brief Therapy. A representative sample of a few of the documents generated out of these three related places which are housed in the Don Jackson Archive may be found below. Please feel free to contact the Archive for information about the numerous films, audio recordings, photograph, and written documents housed in the collection.

  • Front page of the journal article "The Question of Family Homeostasis" (1957) in which Jackson posits the fundamental concept of family homeostasis
  • Front page of the journal article "Toward a theory of Schizophrenia" (1956) in which Bateson, Jackson, Haley, and Weakland posit a communication based theory of human behavior and introduce the concept of the double bind
  • Front page of the journal article "The therapist's personality in the therapy of schizophrenia" (1955) in which Jackson posits what is now called a post modern, cybernetics of cybernetics viewpoint about the relationship between a therapist and client
  • Letter from Bateson to Milton Erickson posing the Double Bind concept and asking if Jay Haley & John Weakland could come to Phoenix to consult with him. (1955)
  • Front page of the journal article "A note on the importance of trauma in the genesis of schizophrenia" (1957) in which Jackson calls into question the relevance of specific trauma and heredity to the etiology of severe emotional illlness. He then posits that current family interactions in their appropriate subtlety, complexity, and intensity as a nondiscrete and continuing condition operating in the person's environment more accurately explains the person's difficulty.
  • Front page of the journal article "Guilt & the Control of Pleasure in the schizoid personality" (1958) in which Jackson posits the idea that the struggle to define the nature of the relationship is central to human difficulties
  • Front page of the journal article "Schizophrenic Symptoms and Family Interaction" (1959) in which Jackson and Weakland posit the idea that symptoms serve a positive function in balancing relationships within the family
  • Memo proposing the creation of the Mental Research Institute [the first Family Therapy institute ever established anywhere in the world] (1958)
  • Memo proposing the creation of the journal Family Process [the first Family Therapy journal] (1961)
  • Front page of the journal article "The study of the Family" (1965) in which Jackson outlines interactional family theory
  • Front page of the journal article "Family Rules: Marital Quid Pro Quo" (1965) in which Jackson introduces the concept of family rules
  • The Memo from Richard Fisch to Don Jackson proposing the creation of a Brief Therapy Center (1965)
  • Brochure announcing Don Jackson as recipient of the Salmon Lecturer for 1967
  • Front cover of the groundbreaking book "Pragmatics of Human Communication" (1967)
  • Front cover of the groundbreaking book "Mirages of Marriage" (1968)