onofreshoots's review against another edition
1.0
I couldn't get through this book. I understand that it was written in 1973 and there was always the possibility that some of the ideas and viewpoints would be archaic, but man! Becker has a complete lack of understanding of mental health and disease, gender roles, and most psychology in general. The stuff he had to say about mental health issues alone was enough for me. If you want to make this more bearable, play a drinking game where you take a shot every time he says "beautifully"—you'll be drunk enough to deal with this insufferable book.
benrogerswpg's review against another edition
3.0
The Importance of Reading Ernest
I found this very interesting.
An excellent analysis on life.
This book was an excellent reminder of the best memento mori:
Without Jesus, we all are dead.
3.6/5
I found this very interesting.
An excellent analysis on life.
This book was an excellent reminder of the best memento mori:
Without Jesus, we all are dead.
3.6/5
angebug's review against another edition
5.0
This is the most important and life-changing book I’ve ever read. Each time I re-read it I still get chills down my spine
toffishay's review against another edition
It wasn't quite what I expected, but will certainly be someone else's cup of tea. It is much more a psychological exploration of death, than a social one.
dchau's review against another edition
2.0
What did I just read? I thought I would take a break from fiction but never thought I would be reading about Freud's Oedipus complex, neurotics, and psychotics. A lot of dated comments about homosexuality (being a perversion) and transvestites as a illness.
phillip25's review against another edition
3.0
This book was so long. It felt like it'd never end. Lots of unnecessary latin - like nearly all works.
convoluted.
I couldn't understand all that was said - maybe my fault - lots of tangent which meant nothing to me.
However what I did learn was fine.
What I took from this:
• though processing the world as a small god (apparently), we are but food for worms. this realization is discovered young in anality.
• anxiety of death is what drives man
• anxiety of death is reinforced by the world being:
1. terrifying (pain, destruction, suffering of the world is indifferent to you)
2. awesomeness (so amazing, and grand that we fail to recognize it, and if we were to take in the totality of the world we'd psychological implode).
3. mystery (its intrinsic ability to not be understood, showing the finite ability of man)
• to avoid this anxiety we use transference object, immorality projects (causa sui project) both achieved as heroism.
• culture is the collective vice for avoiding it (the automatic/immediate man distracts himself from such)
• all have a fantasy of immorality (pg.120) but deep down understand one must die
• psychotherapy will not be able to give what everyone expects of it, religion is gone and the modern man fears death all the more. psychotherapy fails to be a new religion as religion is a lived experience and not just intellectual concepts. there is a false belief that paradise will come from self-knowledge.
• the failures of Freud
• guilt comes from unused life, issued by the fear of life in the jonah complex.
learnt alot about old ideas about our psychology, that i had only briefly heard on YouTube. so not a full waste of time. though, most went in one ear and out the other. I think it had many tangents to flow and be coherent. lots of stuff that i've been told has been empirically disproven.
convoluted.
I couldn't understand all that was said - maybe my fault - lots of tangent which meant nothing to me.
However what I did learn was fine.
What I took from this:
• though processing the world as a small god (apparently), we are but food for worms. this realization is discovered young in anality.
• anxiety of death is what drives man
• anxiety of death is reinforced by the world being:
1. terrifying (pain, destruction, suffering of the world is indifferent to you)
2. awesomeness (so amazing, and grand that we fail to recognize it, and if we were to take in the totality of the world we'd psychological implode).
3. mystery (its intrinsic ability to not be understood, showing the finite ability of man)
• to avoid this anxiety we use transference object, immorality projects (causa sui project) both achieved as heroism.
• culture is the collective vice for avoiding it (the automatic/immediate man distracts himself from such)
• all have a fantasy of immorality (pg.120) but deep down understand one must die
• psychotherapy will not be able to give what everyone expects of it, religion is gone and the modern man fears death all the more. psychotherapy fails to be a new religion as religion is a lived experience and not just intellectual concepts. there is a false belief that paradise will come from self-knowledge.
• the failures of Freud
• guilt comes from unused life, issued by the fear of life in the jonah complex.
learnt alot about old ideas about our psychology, that i had only briefly heard on YouTube. so not a full waste of time. though, most went in one ear and out the other. I think it had many tangents to flow and be coherent. lots of stuff that i've been told has been empirically disproven.
jonathanlibrarian's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
3.5
Chapters 7 to 9 were quite interesting. Very poetic at times but not a clue to the veracity of anything said. Large sections of psycho babble. Liked the kierkegaard stuff early on.
bradenkwebb's review against another edition
4.0
Becker discusses the duality of man as both a symbolic and physical creature and argues that the driving mechanism behind each of lives is a need to repress consciousness of our own mortality. He presents a fascinating and thorough explanatory account of human behavior, both individual and collective, in light of this need to deny death. Among other topics, he discusses spirituality, existentialism, psychoanalysis, religion and mental illness.
I honestly haven’t touched the work of Kierkegaard, Freud, Otto Rank, or any of the other thinkers on whom Becker builds, so I don’t feel particularly qualified to critique his thoughts. I also don’t have any background in psychoanalysis, and I’ve always been a little skeptical of many of its seemingly unfalsifiable claims. My lack of context might be why I took a very long time to finish this book, setting it down here and there and then picking it up again a few weeks later.
That being said, it’s a relatively short book, and I think it was well-written. I think it has altered my worldview in some ways, and I hope to at least read Escape From Evil in the future.
I honestly haven’t touched the work of Kierkegaard, Freud, Otto Rank, or any of the other thinkers on whom Becker builds, so I don’t feel particularly qualified to critique his thoughts. I also don’t have any background in psychoanalysis, and I’ve always been a little skeptical of many of its seemingly unfalsifiable claims. My lack of context might be why I took a very long time to finish this book, setting it down here and there and then picking it up again a few weeks later.
That being said, it’s a relatively short book, and I think it was well-written. I think it has altered my worldview in some ways, and I hope to at least read Escape From Evil in the future.
malachi_oneill's review against another edition
2.0
I think this book is much more impactful to people that have a intense interest, knowledge, awareness, education and historical reference to modern psychoanalysis.
It is incredibly heavy on all of that.
If you understand that genre of thought you'll understand the book and what he's saying.
I don't have enough background knowledge or interest and thus the book did not do much for me.
It was interesting and helpful to read the other reviews.
They actually helped me understand the book itself and why I personally didn't connect with it.
It was educational from a historical psychoanalytical topic perspective. Intellectually.
Nothing connected with me personally.
For those of you that want a summary I'd read the reviews or go find a summary version or youtube video explanation of it.
Was almost a DNF for me.
I read it as it was referenced by several other authors and commentators I read, like, follow, and benefited from. If nothing else I learned more about them I suppose, and am grateful they intake and interpret as they do, for others' benefit.
It is incredibly heavy on all of that.
If you understand that genre of thought you'll understand the book and what he's saying.
I don't have enough background knowledge or interest and thus the book did not do much for me.
It was interesting and helpful to read the other reviews.
They actually helped me understand the book itself and why I personally didn't connect with it.
It was educational from a historical psychoanalytical topic perspective. Intellectually.
Nothing connected with me personally.
For those of you that want a summary I'd read the reviews or go find a summary version or youtube video explanation of it.
Was almost a DNF for me.
I read it as it was referenced by several other authors and commentators I read, like, follow, and benefited from. If nothing else I learned more about them I suppose, and am grateful they intake and interpret as they do, for others' benefit.