Freud: The Mind of the Moralist

Freud: The Mind of the Moralist

Cover of the first edition
Author	Philip Rieff
Language	English
Subject	Sigmund Freud
Publisher	Viking Press
Publication date	1959
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages	441 (1961 edition)
ISBN	978-0226716398

Freud: The Mind of the Moralist (1959; second edition 1961; third edition 1979) is a book about Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, by the sociologist Philip Rieff, in which the author places Freud and psychoanalysis in historical context. Rieff described his goal as being to "show the mind of Freud ... as it derives lessons on the right conduct of life from the misery of living it."

One of Rieff's most influential writings, Freud: The Mind of the Moralist has been called "brilliant" and a "great book". It helped to establish Rieff's reputation, and to place Freud at the center of moral and philosophical inquiry; it has been compared to works such as the philosopher Paul Ricœur's Freud and Philosophy (1965). The writer Susan Sontag, Rieff's wife at the time, contributed to the work to such an extent that she has been considered its unofficial co-author and was recognized as such by Rieff himself in his inscription of a copy of the book he gave decades later to her: "Susan, Love of my life, mother of my son, co-author of this book: forgive me. Please. Philip";^[1] it has also been claimed the she was its true author, but she gave up claiming recognition as a result of a separation agreement. ^[2]