Alan Watts--here and now : contributions to psychology, philosophy, and religion / edited by Peter J. Columbus and Donadrian L. Rice.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Columbus, Peter J.

Rice, Donadrian L.

Series:

SUNY series in transpersonal and humanistic psychology

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Watts, Alan, 1915-1973.

Watts, Alan.

Physical Description:

ix, 253 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2012]

Summary:

Alan Watts-Here and Wow explores the intellectual legacy arid continuing relevance of a prolific writer and speaker who was a major influence on American culture during the latter half of the twentieth century. A thinker attuned to the spiritual malaise affecting the Western mind, Watts (1915-1973) provided intellectual and spiritual alternatives that helped shape the Beat culture of the 1950s and the counterculture of the 1960s. Well known for introducing Buddhist and Daoist spirituality to a wide Western audience, he also wrote on psychology, mysticism, and psychedelic experience. Many idolized Watts as a guru-mystic, yet he was also dismissed as intellectually shallow and as a mere popularizer of Asian religions (the "Norman Vincent Peale of Zen"). Both critical and appreciative, this edited volume locates Watts at the forefront of major paradigmatic shifts in Western intellectual life. Contributors explore how Watts's work resonates in present-day scholarship on psychospiritual transformation, Buddhism and psychotherapy, Daoism in the West, phenomenology and hermeneutics, humanistic and transpersonal psychology, mysticism, and ecofeminism, among other areas. Book jacket.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Alan Watts' Anticipation of Four Major Debates in the Psychology of Religion / Ralph W. Hood Jr. Hood, Ralph W., Jr. 25

Chapter 2 Alan Watts: The Immediate Magic of God / Alan Keightley Keightley, Alan 43

Chapter 3 Phenomenological Exegeses of Alan Watts: Transcendental and Hermeneutic Strategies / Peter J. Columbus Columbus, Peter J. 59

Chapter 4 The Psychedelic Adventures of Alan Watts / Stanley Krippner Krippner, Stanley 83

Chapter 5 From the Joyous Cosmology to the Watercourse Way: An Appreciation of Alan Watts / Ralph Metzner Metzner, Ralph 103

Chapter 6 Alan Watts and the Neuroscience of Transcendence / Donadrian L. Rice Rice, Donadrian L. 123

Chapter 7 Listening to the Rain: Embodied Awareness in Watts / Michael C. Brannigan Brannigan, Michael C. 149

Chapter 8 Alan Watts on Nature, Gender, and Sexuality: A Contemporary View / Miriam L. Leveling Leveling, Miriam L. 163

Chapter 9 Contributions and Conundrums in the Psychospiritual Transformation of Alan Watts / Alan Pope Pope, Alan 183

Chapter 10 Buddhist Wisdom in the West: A Fifty-Year Perspective on the Contributions of Alan Watts / Kaisa Puhakka Puhakka, Kaisa 203

Chapter 11 Watercourse Way: Still Flowing with Alan Watts / Chungliang Al Huang Huang, Chungliang Al 219.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781438441993

1438441991

OCLC:

727047968