Conclusion Part Two
If Alan Watts was tormented, in a way that his philosophy could not save him from, it was not only because of his drinking but because of his difficult relationships with women. His first two marriages ended in divorce, his third marriage was mired in a self-destructive spiral of alcoholism.
The women he married, although troubled, were all strong, clever women. As his son, Mark, observed,
“Alan was drawn to combative women, not someone who said ‘oh Alan I love everything that you say’.
So despite the fact that ‘women threw themselves at him’ (Joan Watts) he remained married all his life, and not to acolytes, but to women who stood up to him. And yet, according to Roger Somers, they remained ‘morbidly dependent’ on him.
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