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 psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
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
Susan Sontag (; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, philosopher, and political activist. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on 'Camp'", in 1964. Her ...
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 ...
—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