That depends. Do you ever do acid?

Can someone explain to me the fascination with Leary?

You mean besides all that boring stuff about being one of the leaders of the psychedelic and cultural revolutions of the 1960′s?

And it seems to me that this is a damn interesting and evocative letter independently of Leary.

Now can someone explain to me the fascination with Thelonious Monk? (joke)

I guess I was about 14 when I picked up a copy of “Design for Dying.” I’m a thinker, but having grown up in a small, southern town, I didn’t have much interaction with other thinkers. That book blew my fucking mind, and granted me the realization that I was not alone; there are those who dig wild, new ideas. “Neophiles” I believe someone once called ‘em.

:)

Also, his developmental model for psychological types always struck me as intuitively plausible. Not that model exactly, but the idea of basing a theory of personality on developmental psychology. (Like all the wannabe alpha-male dicks wandering around are stuck in their terrible-twos cause an overbearing father blocked their territorial realization. Stuff like that.) Prometheus Rising (Robert Anton Wilson) is a good read on that topic.

So, the idea of a theory of personality based on developmental psychology may not have been original, but the developmental ‘stages’ that Leary was using were certainly more developed/nuanced and seem (to me) to be very similar to models currently in use by practitioners of Cognitive Behavioral psychology.

So which ideas were those that appealed to you?

As for the fascination with Leary: having read all of his main books, there’s a lot to be fascinated about.

The government put a lot of energy is discrediting the good doctor and a lot of that effort still sticks.

Leary said it best when he said:

Everyone gets the Tim Leary they deserve.

Revolution One (Take 20):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQDDfW2pMhk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ca7w73YOS8

Then again, maybe he wasn’t. Monk straight was trippy enough – can you imagine Monk on mushrooms?

The mind reels…

Also, his developmental model for psychological types always struck me as intuitively plausible. Not that model exactly, but the idea of basing a theory of personality on developmental psychology.

That idea can hardly be said to have originated with Leary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erikson's_stages_of_psychosocial_development

Leary’s “8-circuit model” and Erikson’s “Stages” have some striking similarities, although Leary’s model also attempts to encompass the spiritual / esoteric realms’ (or what have you):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:8-Circuit_Model_of_Consciousness

Interestingly, Erikson taught at Harvard as a Professor of Human Development from 1960-70, overlapping Leary’s time there as a lecturer in psychology 1959-63. I wonder who borrowed from whom? Or maybe they collaborated?

Before he died, I unfairly blamed Leary for scaring the squares about acid – but came to realize they would have been terrified even without the jester.