November 11, 2005

Character Studies

By DAVID GLENN

Philip Rieff has occasionally been criticized by his fellow sociologists for devoting so much attention to poems, novels, and paintings. But he insists that artworks are perfectly valid objects of the sociologist's gaze. "At their best, they are beautifully constructed realities," he says. "I see no reason not to use them."

At least three novelists have returned the compliment, drawing on Mr. Rieff in their own work. Kenneth S. Piver, a California psychiatrist who helped to assemble

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