Wilson views normal, everyday consciousness buffeted by the moment, as 'blinkered' and argues that it should not be accepted as showing us the truth about reality. He argues throughout his work that the existentialist focus on defeat or nausea is only a partial representation of reality and that there is no particular reason for accepting it. Gurdjieff and an accessible introduction to the Greek-Armenian mystic in 1980. Wilson wrote The War Against Sleep: The Philosophy of Gurdjieff on the life, work and philosophy of G. He admired the humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow and corresponded with him. Wilson's works after The Outsider focused on positive aspects of human psychology, such as peak experiences and the narrowness of consciousness.

Critical praise though, was short-lived and Wilson was soon widely criticized. The book was a best seller and helped popularize existentialism in Britain. Lawrence, Vaslav Nijinsky and Vincent Van Gogh and Wilson discusses his perception of Social alienation in their work. These include Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, William James, T. When Wilson was 24, Gollancz published The Outsider (1956) which examines the role of the social 'outsider' in seminal works of various key literary and cultural figures. He left school at 16, worked in factories and various occupations, and read in his spare time. Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.Ĭolin Henry Wilson was born and raised in Leicester, England, U.K.

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