Alan Watts (1915-73)

Eclectic British thinker and writer who relocated to California and played a central part in the counter-culture of the 1960s. Watts became a leading light in the Human Potential Movement and was affiliated to the Esalen Institute. Although he had no academic background in eastern religions and no knowledge of oriental languages, his elegant writings caught the popular imagination and enjoyed considerable success. His books The Way of Zen (1957) and Psychotherapy East and West (1961) offered a way of personal growth based on Eastern psychology as an alternative to what many regard as the egocentric hedonism of Western culture.

A Dictionary of Buddhism, Oxford University Press, 2003, 2004 (which is available in electronic version from answer.com)