Seeing this image again after 40 years reminds me of the classic definition of what psychologists call a “double bind” situation. A double bind is when you give someone contradictory instructions. For instance, when you tell a young boy to go out and play, “but don’t get dirty.” There is no such thing for young boys … as this one proved. Photographed in 1975 in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood, outside Buena Grocery, on Buena next to the El.
