Philip Rieff, 83; Noted Sociologist Wrote Books About Cultural Decline (Obituary)

Los Angeles Times ^ | July 5, 2006 | Elaine Woo

[beckett]

Sociologist Philip Rieff, who wrote erudite analyses of cultural decline and was known in particular for his critiques of Sigmund Freud, died Saturday at his Philadelphia home after a long period of deteriorating health. He was 83.

The longtime University of Pennsylvania professor, who retired in 1992, made his reputation with "The Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses of Faith After Freud" (1966), a difficult work with a pessimistic view of Freud's influence on Western civilization. It was one of three major works on the founder of psychoanalysis, including a 10-volume "Collected Papers of Sigmund Freud" (1963) that Rieff edited.

[beckett]

Posted this for the great quote on abortion (follow link) that I hope will gain a little traction in the culture. Rieff was always very quotable.

[beckett]

Here's the quote for those who choose not to follow the link:

""He called legalized abortion "an odorless flush-away world indifferent to life...""

[vimto]

Yep, followed the link and a very interesting read it is especially for someone from the UK ignorant of this chap - though Susan Sontang is on our radar.

Freud's real legacy is probably in the arts and it's criticism.

Freud has never made much of an impact on psychiatry in the UK. His initial assertion that the woman with conversion hysteria could not all have been sexually molested by their fathers was manifestly a judgment of it's day and would be highly questionable now.

One could make a case that the edifice of pyschoanalalysis was an attempt by Freud to justify to himself his affair with his wife's sister.

His vision was godless and life enervating.

[GSlob]

"He was a campus legend at the University of Pennsylvania, where he banned note-taking in some classes, believing that it prevented students from engaging with texts"
An interesting technique. It would surely promote memory development.

[l33t]

"Known for his mordant writing, Dr. Rieff argued that traditionally the primary function of culture was to integrate individuals into a larger corporate body. He showed how art and literature weren't just aesthetic pursuits but tools to teach people morality. To see Hamlet was as much an object lesson about duty as a leisure activity."

"In modernity, Dr. Rieff wrote, this has been supplanted by the idea that culture is there merely for our gratification. This, he said, teaches that we have no ultimate goals or a higher good, except an obsession to maximize individual advantage and pleasure."

Food for thought for libertarian dogmatists. http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/pennsylvania/14966509.htm

[Oratam]

I just this morning read National Review's review of his recently released book, My Life Among the Deathworks. The book is actually the first volume of three attacking the modern Godless world shaped largely by fellas like Nietzsche, Freud, Wilde, Joyce and . . . Wallace Stevens. (Hey, I recognized 4 out of 5 of 'em.)

I doubt very much it will be required reading at any of our nation's colleges any time soon.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Rest in peace.