The Relevance of Alan Watts in Contemporary Culture Understanding Contributions and Controversies Routledge Research in Psychology Series

Whilst accounting for the present-day popularity and relevance of Alan Watts? contributions to psychology, religion, arts, and humanities, this interdisciplinary collection grapples with the ongoing criticisms which surround Watts? life and work.

Offering rich examination of as yet underexplored aspects of Watts? influence in 1960s counterculture, this volume offers unique application of Watts? thinking to contemporary issues and critically engages with controversies surrounding the commodification of Watts? ideas, his alleged misreading of Biblical texts, and his apparent distortion of Asian religions and spirituality. Featuring a broad range of international contributors and bringing Watts? ideas squarely into the contemporary context, the text provides a comprehensive, yet nuanced exploration of Watts? thinking on psychotherapy, Buddhism, language, music, and sexuality.

This text will benefit researchers, doctoral students, and academics in the fields of psychotherapy, phenomenology, and the philosophy of psychology more broadly. Those interested in Jungian psychotherapy, spirituality, and the self and social identity will also enjoy this volume.

Editor’s Introduction

Alan Watts in the Twenty-first Century

Peter J. Columbus

Part 1: Humanistic Psychology

Chapter One

Jung Watts: Notes on C. G. Jung’s Formative Influence on Alan Watts

Ellen F. Franklin & Peter J. Columbus

Chapter Two

Alan Watts and the Re-visioning of Psychotherapy

Colin James Sanders

Chapter Three

Psychotherapy East and West: A Retrospective Review

Peter J. Columbus

Chapter Four

Alan Watts and Neurophenomenology

Susan Gordon

Chapter Five

Alan Watts and the Infinite Game: Playing Everything

Nathan L. Hulsey

Part 2: Comparative Religion and Philosophy

Chapter Six

Alan Watts, Psychedelic Buddhism, and Religious Play in Postwar America

Morgan Shipley

Chapter Seven

Alan Watts and the Occultism of Aquarian Religion: Square Gnosis, Beat Eros

Christopher W. Chase

Chapter Eight

Alan Watts and Secular Competence in Religious Praxis

Gerald Ostdiek

Chapter Nine

The Holistic Negation of Alan Watts: Reclaiming Value in the Void

Adrian Moore

Chapter Ten

Alan Watts’ "Dramatic Model" and the Pursuit of Peace

Juliet Bennet

Part 3: Arts & Humanities

Chapter Eleven

Reminiscences of Alan Watts’ Last Summer - "You Can Tell a Yogi by His Laugh"

Kenneth S. Cohen

Chapter Twelve

Literary Nonsense as Enactment of Alan Watts’ Philosophy - "Not just blathering balderdash"

Michael Heyman

Chapter Thirteen

Alan Watts, Ali Akbar Khan, and Hindustani Music in the Psychedelic Sixties

Samuel B. Cushman

Chapter Fourteen

Alan Watts and his Queer Readers: Not So Strange Bedfellows

Philip Longo

Editor’s Conclusion

Alan Watts: A Revised Bibliographic Resource

Peter J. Columbus

Peter J. Columbus is administrator of Shantigar Foundation in Rowe, MA, USA, and formerly served on psychology faculties at Assumption College and Greenfield Community College, USA.