FELLOW TEACHERS

by Philip Rieff ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 27, 1973

More than an exposition of ideas, this is a demonstration of Rieff's exquisite pedagogy -- a priestly ""art of concealment"" and as much as he cares to divulge outright of the proper, moral business of education. As sage and as sociologist, Rieff would arrive at the idea of concealment -- we avert our eyes from the ineffable, in some cases, because a direct look reveals something too banal to contemplate. Abstracted, reduced and bald, his argument is a jeremiad against permissiveness and varieties of intellectual chic -- hardware or revolution -- which characterize the ""therapeutic society."" He formulates this nicely: therapy reeducates us from traditional guilts, thus destroying the superego, necessary to ""character,"" and annulling the essential ""interdictory"" force of culture. Character and culture are values beyond analysis, implicitly. Explicitly and more anthropologically, Rieff understands culture to require just such values, perpetuated as, or through ""privileged knowledge."" ""A high culture is a culture of truth,"" like ancient Israel, whereas the modern ""ex-Jew"" is the very type of the ""therapeutic,"" for whom everything is possible and nothing binding. Marx and Freud, the transitives between, are considered closely and demandingly; and while the position may not be appealing (as when interdictory force is extended to mean literal punitive law) the reasoning is vigorous -- often several lines at once pursued in lengthy footnotes. Imposing and elusive.

Pub Date: June 27, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION