double-bind

is not a means of resolving hostility, but rather a means of stabilizing or maintaining it.

This is not, Bateson observes, a means of resolving the hostility between the two, but rather a means of stabilizing it, or a recognition and maintaining of this hostility. The Balinese thus do not attempt to resolve the build-up of tension by transcending it and bringing it to a close, whether from within or from without, but they maintain a 'plateau of intensity' from within, a plateau without resolution. ' (NET)

double bind, n.Definitions

double bind