American literary and media theorist (born 1954)
Laurence Arthur Rickels (born December 2, 1954) is an American literary and media theorist, whose most significant works have been in the tradition of the Frankfurt School's efforts to apply psychoanalytic insights to mass media culture. Some of his best known works include "The Case of California", "The Vampire Lectures", and the three volume work "Nazi Psychoanalysis". After 30 years at the University of California at Santa Barbara, he was appointed successor to Klaus Theweleit in April 2011 to the Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe, where he was professor of Art and Theory for six years. During spring semester 2018 Rickels held the Eberhard Berent Goethe Chair at New York University. In the summers, he serves as the Sigmund Freud Professor of Media and Philosophy at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.
Biography.
Rickels was born in Cherokee, Iowa on December 2, 1954. He currently resides and works in Palm Springs and Berlin.
Academic life.
Rickels’s research has been supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Austrian Government, the Center for German and European Studies (UC Berkeley), the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center (UC Santa Barbara), and the Zentrum für Literatur und Kulturforschung Berlin, among other institutions, agencies, and offices. At New York University he presented the 2007 Otto and Ilse Mainzer Lecture. 
Published books.
(book written as author) 
See also.
List of psychoanalytical theorists