A situation in which a desired outcome or solution is impossible to attain because of a set of inherently illogical rules or conditions. A Catch 22 is when there are two options to a situation and both work against you. Example: A woman's child is being beaten by her father. If she reports it to the authorities she is at risk of losing her child, but if she doesn't report it, the child will continue to be beaten. Its a lose-lose situation

"Catch 22" is a phrase used when describing a situtation that has two parts where the first part needs to be done before the second part can be done, but the second part has to be completed before the first can be done. There is a popular book by the same name.

(...continued) What a lousy earth! How many winners were losers, successes failures, rich men poor men? How many wise guys were stupid? How many happy endings were unhappy endings? How many honest men were liars, brave men cowards, loyal men traitors, how many sainted men were corrupt, how many people in positions of trust had sold their souls to blackguards for petty cash, how many had never had souls? How many straight-and-narrow paths were crooked paths? How many best families were worst families and how many good people were bad people? When you added them all up and then subtracted, you might be left with only the children, and perhaps with an Albert Einstein and an old violinist or sculptor somewhere. Heller once said, "Everyone in my book accuses everyone else of being crazy. Frankly, I think the whole society is nuts, and the question is: What does a sane man do in an insane society?" Robert M. Young, writing about Catch-22, answers, "For the most part, what they try to do is survive in any way they can." -----from "The Straight Dope" .......Warm Regards, Bruce

•The Chaplain, when cornered, lies. He knows that telling lies and defecting from duty are sins. He also knows that sin is evil and that no good can come from evil. "But he did feel good; he felt positively marvelous. Consequently, it followed logically that telling lies and defecting from duty could not be sins." Heller goes on, "The chaplain had mastered, in a moment of divine intuition, the handy technique of protective rationalization, and he was exhilarated by his discovery." So, that's the essence of the Catch. The book was ahead of its time, according to the CNN obituary of Joseph Heller from December 13, 1999, "seemingly written for the generations that followed in the turbulent 1960s and 1970s." During the Vietnam era, the phrase "Catch-22" became a buzz-word for being caught in a no-win, circular dilemma and has now become common usage. The Oxford English Dictionary defines Catch-22 as "a set of circumstances in which one requirement, etc., is dependent upon another, which is in turn dependent upon the first." You've probably encountered similar experiences yourself. I had a colleague who was transferred to the U.S. from Australia. His final exasperation was car insurance: in order to get car insurance in the U.S., based on his age, he needed to have evidence that he was insurable, which means he needed to have prior insurance with a U.S. insurer. He couldn't get insurance because he didn't have insurance. I said to him, "It's a Catch-22," and he knew exactly what I meant. Evan Morris, THE WORD DETECTIVE, at www.word-detective.com, comments that his "personal favorite" example of Catch-22 is "needing to be rich to avoid paying income tax." I leave it to you to find other examples in your daily life. The book Catch-22 is both hilarious and profound. In his walk through the streets of Rome, Yossarian sees suffering and poverty and murder, and has a lengthy soliloquy:

. (...continued) .......... amend, hate, revile, spit at, rip to shreds, trample upon, or burn up. In fact, Heller originally wanted to name his dilemma Catch-18, but a book by Leon Uris called Mila 18, historical fiction about the Warsaw ghetto uprising during WWII, had just been published, and the publishers were afraid there would be confusion. (Mila 18 was a street address.) So, there really isn't a Catch-22, despite its pervasiveness--and that's an example of the catch, of course. Circular dilemmas of this sort appear over and over in the book. Sometimes the Catch is mentioned explicitly, more often not. Some other examples of Catch-22 in action, from the book: •Major Major is a commander who doesn't command. He hates dealing with people, and is somewhat frightened of them. He therefore instructs his receptionist/orderly that, whenever he is in his office, any visitors should be told he is out. When he leaves his office (sneaking out the back window), the receptionist can send visitors in to see him. In short, the only time you can see Major Major in his office is when he's out. If he's in, you can't see him. It's an example of Catch-22, although the catch is not explicitly mentioned in this connection. •Doctor Daneeka is a doctor who responds to patients' complaints by telling them his own troubles. •The military police chase the girls away from Yossarian's favorite haunt. When asked what right they have to do this, they reply, "Catch-22." Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything that you can't stop them from doing. And if you ask to see Catch-22, the law says they don't have to show it to you. What law? Catch-22, of course. •In the hospital, the Soldier in White (in a plaster cast from head to toe) has a bottle of plasma going in and a bottle of urine coming out. The nurses routinely switch the bottles around, in an endless cycle. •The Chaplain, when cornered, lies. He knows that telling lies and defecting from duty are sins. He also knows that