Alan Watts
Articles

Alan Watts wrote more than 25 academic articles, along with many articles that appeared in popular publications.

Magazine & Newspaper Articles

 

1952 — The Aim Is to Know. New York Times, February 3, p. BR3.

1960 — The Ways of the Mind. New York Time, October 16, p. BR35.

1961 — Aftermath: The Decline of the East. Esquire, April, pp. 156-157.

1963 — Man Cannot Live Without Myth. San Francisco Chronicle, December 8, p. 42.

1965 — The Circle of Sex. Playboy, 12(12): pp. 134-135.

1966 — A Redbook Dialogue: Shirley MacLaine and Alan Watts, in Redbook, May: pp. 52-53, 98, 100-103

1967 — The Houseboat Summit [Featuring Timothy Leary, Gary Snyder, Alan Watts, and Allen Ginsberg.] SF Oracle, Vol 1., No 7.

1968 — Manifesto to Cut the Big Hang-Up. East Village Other, January: pp. 1-15.

1968 — On the Tantra. Mademoiselle, July: p. 47, 136.

1968 — Wealth Versus Money. Playboy, 15(12).

1969 — Murder in the Kitchen. Playboy, 16(12).

1970 — Playboy Panel Discussion: The Drug Revolution. Playboy, 17(2).

1971 — The Future of Ecstasy. Playboy, 18(1).

1972 — The Sound of Rain. Playboy, 19(5).

1972 — At the Interface: Technology and Mysticism [co-authored with Arthur C. Clarke]. Playboy, 20(1).

1973 — The World’s Most Dangerous Book. Playboy, 20(12).

Locating these magazine and newspaper articles are a bit more challenging than finding Watts’ books. If you need help, consult a reference librarian at your local library or university. 

 

Academic Journal Articles

 

1939 — How Buddhism Came to Life: The Wide Difference in the Practice of an Ancient Indian Philosophy in China and Japan. Asia, 39(1): 580-585.

1939 — The Rusty Swords of Japan. Asia, May: 291-293.

1941 — The Problem of Faith and Works in Buddhism. Review of Religion, 5(4): 387-402.

1950 — Review of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by W. Y. Evans-Wentz. The Journal of Religion 30(4): 300.

1951 — The Negative Way. Vedanta and the West 14(4): 97-101.

1953 — Asian Psychology and Modern Psychiatry. The American Journal of Psychoanalysis 13: 25-30.

1953 — On Philosophical Synthesis. Philosophy East and West, 3(2): 99-100.

1953 — The Language of Metaphysical Experience: The Sense of Non-Sense. The Journal of Religious Thought, 10(2): 132-143.

1954 — Review of Works of Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki. Philosophy East and West, 4(3): 278-279.

1955 — Oriental ‘Omnipotence.’ Tomorrow 4(1): 31-36.

1956 — Convention, Conflict, and Liberation: Further Observations on Asian Psychology and Modern Psychiatry. The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 16: 63-68.

1958 — Beat Zen, Square Zen, and Zen. Chicago Review 12(2): 3-11.

1958 — Zen and the Problem of Control. Contact 1(1).

1959 — Eternity as the Unrepressed Body [A review of Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytic Meaning of History by Norman O. Brown]. Etc: A Review of General Semantics, 16(4): 486-494.

1959 — Review of Psychology and Religion: West and East by Carl G. Jung. Chicago Review 13(1): 84-86.

1961 — Applied Buddhism. Saturday Review, 44: 19.

1962 — The Spoor of Eastern Spirits [A review of The Masks of God, Vol. 2: Oriental Mythology, by Joseph Campbell]. Saturday Review, June 2, 1962: 36-37.

1963 — The Individual as Man/World. Psychedelic Review, 1(1): 55-65.

1964 — Gods Go West [A review of The Masks of Gods, Vol. 3: Occidental Mythology, by Joseph Campbell]. The New Republic, 151: 25-26.

1964 — Who Will Run Your Nervous System? [A review of The Beyond Within: The LSD Story, by Sidney Cohen]. The New Republic, 151(22): 15-16.

1964 — Some Remembrances of Aldous Huxley. The Psychedelic Review, 1(3): 265-267.

1965 — The Mystic More Freudian than Freud [A review of The Wild Analyst: The Life and Work of Georg Groddeck, by Carl M. Grossman and Sylvia Grossman]. The New Republic, 152, May: 22-24.

1967 — The “Mind-less” Scholar. The Eastern Buddhist, 11(1): 124-127.

1968 — Psychedelics and Religious Experience. California Law Review, 56(1): 74-85.

1974 — Psychotherapy and Eastern Religion: Metaphysical Bases of Psychiatry. The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 6(1): 18-31

1974 — Unity in Contemplation. CrossCurrents, 24(2/3): 367-377.

1996 — Beat Zen, Square Zen, and Zen. Chicago Review, 42(3/4): 48-55.

 

Unlike the books that Watts wrote, which are almost all available on Amazon, Watts’ journal articles are a bit trickier to find. A reference librarian at your local public library or university (if you’re a student) can assist in locating any of these articles. If you know how to use academic search tools such as WorldCat, Jstor, ProQuest, and Inter-Library Loan systems, then you know what to do.… And if you want to learn, ask your local librarian.

 

 

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