Ernest Becker’s The Denial of Death is one of the few books that i’ve managed to get through this year. it took me several months, but if you pick up this read, you’ll understand why.
drawing heavily from such intellectual giants as the saddeningly obscure Otto Rank (whose life work concluded this post’s title) to the more prominent Freud and Kierkegaard, Becker attempts to explain human beings and our behavior in light of the impending reality of death. Becker expounds on the idea of the denial of death as means to living in and maintaining the programming of our society’s culture. such a denial, according to Becker’s astute analysis, produces the spectrum of behaviors that are known to man.
in other words, this piece of nonfiction should be required reading for all people. do yourself a favor and get a copy of this book. my short synopsis hardly does Becker’s simple and eloquent ruminations any justice.
