Philip Rieff (December 15, 1922 – July 1, 2006) was an American sociologist and cultural critic, who taught sociology at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
from 1961 until 1992. He was the author of a number of books on
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...
and his legacy, including ''
Freud: The Mind of the Moralist'' (1959) and ''The Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses of Faith after Freud'' (1966). He married his 17 year-old student
Susan Sontag after 10 days of courtship in the 1950s. The marriage lasted eight years during which their son,
David Rieff
David Rieff (; born September 28, 1952) is an American non-fiction writer and policy analyst. His books have focused on issues of immigration, international conflict, and humanitarianism.
Biography
Rieff is the only child of Susan Sontag, who w ...
—a writer and editor of his mother's personal journals—was born. His second wife and widow Alison Douglas Knox died December 12, 2011.
Works
*''
Freud: The Mind of the Moralist'', 1959.
*''Collected Papers of Sigmund Freud'' (ed.). Collier Books, 1963.
*''The Triumph of the Therapeutic''. Harper & Row, 1966.
*''Fellow Teachers''. Harper & Row, 1973.
*''The Feeling Intellect''. University of Chicago Press, 1990.
*''My Life Among the Deathworks''. University of Virginia Press, 2006.
*''Charisma''. Pantheon, 2007.
* ''The Crisis of the Officer Class''. University of Virginia Press, 2007.
* ''The Jew of Culture''. University of Virginia Press, 2008.
Notes
Further reading
*Aeschliman, M.D., “The Aesthetics of Moloch,” National Review, 17 July 2006, 41-2.
*Imber, Jonathan B. (ed.). ''Therapeutic Culture: Triumph and Defeat''. Transaction, 2004.
*Manning, Philip. ''Freud and American Sociology''. Polity Press, 2005.
*Zondervan, A. A. W. ''Sociology and the Sacred. An Introduction to Philip Rieff's Theory of Culture''. University of Toronto Press, 2005.
External links
*Beer, Jeremy
Pieties of Silence ''
The American Conservative
''The American Conservative'' (''TAC'') is a magazine published by the American Ideas Institute which was founded in 2002. Originally published twice a month, it was reduced to monthly publication in August 2009, and since February 2013, it has ...
''
Philip Rieff correspondence at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries
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Rieff, Phillip
Rieff, Phillip
American male writers
American sociologists
Brandeis University faculty
Harvard University faculty
Jewish American writers
University of Chicago alumni
University of Pennsylvania faculty