Scan barcode
A review by konniecanread
The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
2.5
What if Freud, but existentialist? A very thought provoking book, that, like Freud, extrapolates from fascinating and insightful premises to reach dramatically incorrect conclusions.
I do think there is something traumatic to a creature designed primarily to avoid death realising that it will inevitably die. Our main two drives are surviving (not dying; Becker) and reproducing (sex; Freud) and so I think these explorations do get at something. But to extrapolate from that to explain all of human psychology is ehhh - especially when seen from a modern perspective, which is significantly more empirically sound.
I was particularly fond of the chapter where he says depressed people are just too cowardly to face life, that one was really cool I thought.
I give it 2.5*s because it is wrong: nonetheless, I would recommend it to a lot of people, especially the first half, because it is very thought provoking.
I do think there is something traumatic to a creature designed primarily to avoid death realising that it will inevitably die. Our main two drives are surviving (not dying; Becker) and reproducing (sex; Freud) and so I think these explorations do get at something. But to extrapolate from that to explain all of human psychology is ehhh - especially when seen from a modern perspective, which is significantly more empirically sound.
I was particularly fond of the chapter where he says depressed people are just too cowardly to face life, that one was really cool I thought.
I give it 2.5*s because it is wrong: nonetheless, I would recommend it to a lot of people, especially the first half, because it is very thought provoking.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Suicide