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A review by bradenkwebb
The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker
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.