Postscript: M Scott Peck

The Daily Telegraph obituary of M Scott Peck, linked in the previous post, generated some email -- for and against the Telegraph's somewhat harsh, irritable tone. For a more anodyne obit, try the New York Times (reg. required). Thanks, Mike B!
The Telegraph obit also generated email pointing out that though a messenger may have lived a less than wholesome life, the message was still valuable.
The example given? Tibetan rinpoche, Chogyam Trungpa. who founded the Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, in 1974. In the years prior to his death (1986) Trungpa became an "alcoholic, a smoker and slept with his students. He was an artist and a poet, the man was also a wonderful conduit for Buddhist teaching. Go figure." Trungpa helped a lot of people.
Which got me thinking further. About psychiatrist R D Laing. And Alan Watts. Laing helped many people (including Mister Bijou) through his professional work and his writings (The Divided Self; The Politics of Experience and the Bird of Paradise; Knots). Separately, Watts explained Buddhism and, later, Taoism (The Way of Zen; Tao: the Watercourse Way). Both Laing and Watts ended up terminal alcoholics. Yet their works continue to have merit. So, the conundrum remains: how important is knowledge of a person's private life in assessing their published work?