The appetizer is quite the pleaser. (Worm Food)
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This book was highley recommended by a professor of mine and I first read it a good eight years ago, only to pick it up again recently. After graduating college and being stuck with a few existential dilemas, this book at least adds to them once again. I picked it up again for nice airplane reading, being this activity acurately reflects utterly you situation during air travel as well any other time in life- death is everpresent and immenint. Your only rubber crutch is faith. Faith that I do not have and perhaps Becker did not have as well. He was terminally ill with cancer during its writing. (Whether he was aware of this or not we will never know; Perhaps it was unconcsious.) I think this is the whole point of the book. Scientifically one will never know before it is too late. However, modern physics parallels the existential dilemma very well. Even if energy is neither created nor destroyed and is changed, the change in our bioelectrical energy upon death may not embody what we consciously perceive as our ego identity. So in effect, our identity may still be lost at death. What we consider ourselves to be will be no more. Here lies the heart of the book. Psychologically, we must experience this phenomena during life if we are to gain pure freedom, and live our lives on our own individual terms-not society's, not culture's, not even our biological oragnism's, even though this is inescapable. Paradoxes abound in this book, which may not be a bad thing. Paradox may be the only truly liberating thing in existence. And this just might be Creative design. Bon appetite.
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HONESTY: a terrifying black well, even for Becker.
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In Becker's The Denial Of Death, death, as it turns out in the book, equals ultimate helplessness , that is to say, man is a creature who lives in fantasizing denial of the fact that he is incapable of freeing himself from the cage of his mortality which is not only physical, but ontological, without a transcendent escape-hatch.
Throughout the book Becker skillfully and powerfully accumulates empirical and logical evidence, including a very strong analysis of infant and child psychology as well as one of adult society, to support his premise. As one approaches the end of the book the effect of all this is quite powerful and I enjoyed it immensely, but the conclusion of the book was for me rather anti-climactic and somewhat annoying and I will give the precise reason for why I feel this way. I would ask any reader who admires and takes Becker's book seriously, to please consider my viewpoint and understand that I too take very seriously what Becker struggled with in this book which, in spite of my qualification, I highly recommend.
First of all, my problem is not that Becker did not supply an 'answer' for all the dark difficulties he heaped up in front of us throughout the book. If he had attempted such an answer, I don't know how it could have looked anything but ludicrous. The word ludicrous comes from the Latin, ludus (game) and implies that one is playing a game. Becker carefully avoids the game of facile answers and prides himself on this. In fact, I think he prides himself a little too much and this pride hides what is a deeper game.
Please note how frequently Becker speaks favorably, positively and admiringly of the 'fall from grace' metaphysics of Augustine and Kierkegaard as representatives of a certain strain of Christian belief. This metaphysical position holds that man is incapable of essentially altering his condition for the good and is absolutely dependent in his fallen state on the grace and mercy of God. Becker has only scorn for any metaphysical position that allows for human consciousness having any access to anything transcendent, such as is found in the later works of Brown, Fromm, Jung and even Tillich, among others. He continually praises the insight shown by Augustine and especially Kierkegaard into human psychology, particularly the human tendency toward fantasizing false realities into existence. And even at the end of the book he praises the "beauty" of this religion. Now, the very serious problem with this is that there is no indication that Becker has the slightest belief in the reality of this religious metaphysics which he strangely uses to defend his own view of reality. And his own view seems to be, in part, that man is incapable of even formulating a valid metaphysics precisely because he has no transcendent capacity, he is helplessly mortal and that is exactly what he is in denial of. Something is clearly amiss here. Is Becker saying that Augustine and Kierkegaard had remarkable insights into human psychology but were both typical human fantasizing failures in regards to their religious belief? Or does Becker believe that maybe these men really did receive the grace of transcendent revelations from a transcendent deity? Becker is absolutely silent on these questions. What is so important about this is that after Becker does such an admirable job of laying out the human problem of the 'denial of death', he then implies that we must take this seriously and address it. But address it with what? Borrowed metaphysics? Well, presumably not. We suppose his answer would be to address it with honesty. Well, I would like an honest answer to the question of why Becker uses religious beliefs that he does not even hold to reveal and support the truth of his own viewpoint? There is something not quite forthright about this and it belies his criticism at the end of the book of what he considers Norman O. Brown's lapse into facile mysticism. And what exactly is Becker's viewpoint? That humans are generally terrified into denial and fantasy by the reality of guilt and death? That is a profound fact, but in the end I don't really need Becker to know that and it tells me nothing about how Becker himself approached his guilt and death. I am not asking Becker to tell us something that he does not know, but precisely rather to attempt to describe what he does not know instead of covering it up with the grandiose religious fantasies of Augustine. I simply wish that at the conclusion of his book he would have given a more personal vision of what he believed he was "offering... to the life force."
I recommend the book strongly, but give it only four stars because of its conclusion.
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most important book i've ever read
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I think all the reviews say this but I will reiterate it again: this book changed my life. It forced to ponder every important question in life, for me and for all of mankind, in new, difficult yet enlightening ways. I think it's completely undervalued and underrated by academia (at least at the school I teach at) not only as psychological text, but as a philosophical and spiritual text as well. It's writing is both honest and impassioned, written with the ardous care of a man who has forced himself to face life and death in a magnanimous and sober way. This is easily my favorite book.
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I ve read lots of books i dont understand and quite a few wich were "cool" to Read (neitche) this is probably the only book i have read wich is almost always in my mind and in my observations on life. This is the only book wich can save humanity from destruction read it and prepare for the emptiness. This book is not cool or trendy in any way these are the last words of a dying man. I said that because everyone listens to you when they know youre dying instead of just waiting for there turn to speak. thanks for the book mike trying to get in touch with you to get it back to you.
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Helps you be human
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Book Review / The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker Nearly 60 reviews have already been posted on this book, many delving into the ins and outs of the psychological theories Becker proposes. So, I simply want to report the impact this book had on me. Over decades of reading, I have sought authors who will admit the truth. Becker does. To find a book that insightfully examines -- with a clear, steady gaze -- the profoundest fundamentals of human existence is quite rare. I have read thousands of books in my life, and Becker's is one of the few that genuinely qualifies. He dares go where many fear to tread. But, death and our denial of it, he establishes, is at the core of human existence and a root force shaping both human personality and human society. I imagine it is impossible to understand life without grasping this. Becker brilliantly analyzes why and how we avoid acknowledging this fact at all costs. If you have the courage to look at the core of things; to examine your own denial of death and how it has -- and currently is -- shaping your life; then this book is for you. It is for readers who find the truth fundamentally more liberating, than intimidating. Becker helped me become more honestly human. He also helped me feel less weird, ( i.e. neurotic) by acknowledging that much neurosis stems from being constantly and painfully aware of the actual facts of existence. Despite the "heavy" topic, Becker's overall writing style is lucid, accessible, even engaging, and without posturing. Only occasional sections lapse into rather turgid debate of psychological theory. If you want a book that calmly stares you straight in the face, while dissecting what really matters; if you are looking for a book that can help ground you in the center of reality, here it is.
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