I thought that I had already written all that I had wanted to say in print about Philip Rieff's work in a review of the first volume of his trilogy Sacred Order/Social Order, My Life among the Deathworks published shortly before his death in 2006. To be sure, left out of that review was a statement of admiration of Rieff and for his work. There was no mention of the numerous books from his library inscribed by him to me and given to me; nor was there any reference to our discussions about many matters, including those articles that I had written and in which he was particularly interested, for example, the lengthy review essay of Harold Bloom's poor book, The Book of J. I thought that it was not proper to insert a description of a personal relation into a scholarly evaluation of another's work. I also left out of that review certain critical observations that, while scholarly, might have been construed as even somewhat personal. I would have regretted a conclusion that any criticism might have been reached out of a personal animus of any kind; for, as I have already remarked, I admired Rieff and I admire his work. He provided a focus for, and certainly clarified, some of my ideas, and especially those dealing with the therapeutic modality that has given rise to what Rieff characterized as the “psychological man.” The academy is a poorer place without him, and I have often longed to discuss many problems on my mind with him.

Nevertheless, the following remarks are more critical of his work than what appeared in that earlier review. I know well that whatever criticisms I have of Rieff's work, they are criticisms of contributions obviously far more important than the few that I may have made or likely will make. Actually, the criticisms of Rieff's work raised in this chapter are not so much criticisms of what he accomplished, but rather observations of what he did not do. In any event, the opportunity to offer some critical evaluations of Rieff's work was not the reason I agreed to write a second time about his contributions— contributions made by someone who was more a profound analyst of our culture than a social theorist.