The Denial of Death

The Denial of Death
The Denial of Death  
Denialofdeathcover.jpg
Author(s) Ernest Becker
Country United States
Language English
Subject(s) philosophy/psychology
Genre(s) non-fiction
Pages 336
ISBN 0684832402 (ISBN13: 9780684832401)

The Denial of Death is a work of psychology and philosophy written by Ernest Becker and published in 1973.[1] It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1974, two months after the author's death.[2] The book builds largely on the works of Søren Kierkegaard, Sigmund Freud, and one of Freud's colleagues, Otto Rank.

Contents

Themes

The basic premise of The Denial of Death is that human civilization is ultimately an elaborate, symbolic defense mechanism against the knowledge of our mortality, which in turn acts as the emotional and intellectual response to our basic survival mechanism. Becker argues that a basic duality in human life exists between the physical world of objects and a symbolic world of human meaning. Thus, since man has a dualistic nature consisting of a physical self and a symbolic self, man is able to transcend the dilemma of mortality through heroism, a concept involving his symbolic half. By embarking on what Becker refers to as an "immortality project" (or causa sui), in which he creates or becomes part of something which he feels will last forever, man feels he has "become" heroic and, henceforth, part of something eternal; something that will never die, compared to his physical body that will die one day. This, in turn, gives man the feeling that his life has meaning; a purpose; significance in the grand scheme of things.

From this premise Becker argues that mental illness is most insightfully extrapolated as a bogging down in one's hero system(s). When someone is experiencing depression, their causa sui (or heroism project) is failing, and they are being consistently reminded of their mortality and insignificance as a result. Schizophrenia is a step further than depression in which one's causa sui is falling apart, making it impossible to engender sufficient defense mechanisms against their mortality; henceforth, the schizophrenic has to create their own reality or "world" in which they are better heroes. Becker argues that the conflict between immortality projects which contradict each other (particularly in religion) is the wellspring for the destruction and misery in our world caused by wars, bigotry, genocide, racism, nationalism, and so forth, since an immortality project which contradicts others indirectly suggests that the others are wrong.

Another theme running throughout the book is that humanity's traditional "hero-systems" i.e. religion, are no longer convincing in the age of reason; science is attempting to solve the problem of man, something that Becker feels it can never do. The book states that we need new convincing "illusions" that enable us to feel heroic in the grand scheme of things, i.e. immortal. Becker, however, does not provide any definitive answer, mainly because he believes that there is no perfect solution. Instead, he hopes that gradual realization of man's innate motivations, namely death, can help to bring about a better world.

Impact

Becker's work has had a wider cultural impact beyond the fields of psychology and philosophy. The book made an appearance in Woody Allen's film Annie Hall, when the death-obsessed character Alvy Singer buys it for his girlfriend, Annie Hall. It was referred to by Spalding Gray in his work, It's a Slippery Slope.[3] Bill Clinton quoted it in his autobiography; he also included it as one of twenty one titles in his list of favourite books.[4]

See also

References

  1. ^ *Becker, Ernest (1973). The Denial of Death. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-83240-2. 
  2. ^ Pulitzer Prizes website
  3. ^ Gray, Spalding (Revised ed. (1997)). It's a Slippery Slope. USA, New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux Inc. ISBN 978-0374525231. 
  4. ^ Clinton Presidential Library and Museum. "Biography — William J. Clinton". http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/william-j.-clinton-bio.html. Retrieved 2009-08-05. 

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • The Story of Civilization —   Author(s) Will Durant Ariel Durant …   Wikipedia

  • The Biggest Bear — Infobox Book name = The Biggest Bear image caption = author = Lynd Ward illustrator = Lynd Ward cover artist = country = United States genre = Children s picture book publisher = Houghton release date = 1952 media type = pages = isbn = ISBN 0 395 …   Wikipedia

  • Denial of the Armenian Genocide — is the assertion that the Armenian Genocide did not occur in the manner or to the extent described by scholarship. The Armenian Genocide is widely acknowledged outside Turkey to have been one of the first modern, systematic genocides, [Ferguson,… …   Wikipedia

  • The Residents — Pays d’origine  États Unis Genre musical Avant garde Post punk musique expérimentale An …   Wikipédia en Français

  • The Antichrist (book) — The Antichrist   Cover of the 2005 Cosimo edition …   Wikipedia

  • The Reformation —     The Reformation     † Catholic Encyclopedia ► The Reformation     The usual term for the religious movement which made its appearance in Western Europe in the sixteenth century, and which, while ostensibly aiming at an internal renewal of the …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • The World as Will and Representation — The title page of the expanded 1844 publication The World as Will and Representation (Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung) is the central work of the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. The first edition was published in December 1818,[1] and… …   Wikipedia

  • The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist —     The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist     † Catholic Encyclopedia ► The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist     In this article we shall consider:     ♦ the fact of the Real Presence, which is, indeed, the central dogma;     ♦ the …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • The White Stripes — The White Stripes …   Википедия

  • The Pope —     The Pope     † Catholic Encyclopedia ► The Pope     (Ecclesiastical Latin papa from Greek papas, a variant of pappas father, in classical Latin pappas Juvenal, Satires 6:633).     The title pope, once used with far greater latitude (see below …   Catholic encyclopedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”