The double bind: “An emotionally distressing dilemma in communication in which an individual (or group) receives two or more conflicting messages, and one message negates the other.”
Example: You’re told to say what’s on your mind or it’ll be held against you in some way, but when you do, what you said is held against you.
The concept isn’t new. It’s what’s known in everyday speech as a Catch 22 … stuck “between a rock and a hard place” … “damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”