Selfie: How the West Became Self-Obsessed

by Will Storr

Fritz and Schutz maintained a peace, for a while, despite their pitifully masculine interest in the size of each other’s encounter groups. But the huge national success of the Institute began drawing the big media – and they seemed interested, mostly, in Schutz. Surprisingly, a September 1967 article in Time didn’t mention Fritz or Gestalt at all. Fritz began sniping. He disparaged Schutz’s clients as mere ‘joy boys’ and would publicly insult him in the Lodge, commenting acidly that everyone in his groups seemed to be having fun. Next, a writer from the New York Times Magazine came to Esalen – to take part in a Schutz workshop. Then a Life magazine writer came to do the same. Schutz was a guest on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson three nights in a row. In a move that must have infuriated Fritz, he named himself ‘the first