double bind — English Dictionary

Noun

1. A dilemma in which someone receives contradictory instructions and cannot act on either.

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   She is deciding, right then and there, if she wants to be seen naked on the internet, forever, an object of desire as well as derision. […] In a sense, as Angel notes, the scene dramatizes “the double bind in which women exist: that saying no may be difficult, but so too is saying yes.”

Noun

1. (psychology) an unresolvable dilemma; situation in which a person receives contradictory messages from a person who is very powerful

   Broader terms

   dilemmaquandary