I'm not going to lie and pretend like I understood all of this book or fully grasped all of the philosophical points in the book, because I didn't. The things I did understand were really thought provoking, though, and that's what I loved about it. I don't think I could even do this book close to what it deserves through a book review. So I'm not even going to try. What I will say is that I do plan to keep reading it, to try and understand it better, quite often. Also plan on looking up some explanations of the parts I could tell were important but couldn't grasp.

What I'm really trying to say here is that you don't have to be extremely intelligent to enjoy this book, or even to get many of his points.

This book will transform your view of everything, if you are only honest with yourself and let it. The language assumes some great familiarity with Freudian psychology, but the layman can definitely power through it with a little help from Wikipedia, Google, etc.

I was a little disappointed that as I progressed through the book, I saw fewer and fewer passages highlighted in my kindle, which means that a number of people gave up before getting to the later chapters, which were filled with amazing insights.

I am planning on reading this again, if only to be able to think about it a little more deeply, but throughout the book I felt myself saying "aha" and "ahh" a lot. Very insightful, damning, and in the end illuminating.

It makes a whole lot of sense that this book won a Pulitzer. For a book about the centrality of death in the human psyche, it does a great job painting a nuanced, expansive picture of life itself. Becker's analysis and reorientation of Freudian thought around more broad existential principles is as impressive as it is vital; it redeemed a lot of Freud I've found kinda lacking, for one thing. Also, I really appreciated his focus on Kierkegaard as a progenitor of psychoanalysis—I've always thought of him as a uniquely talented observer of the human condition and how to transcend one's limits, so it was nice to have that echoed much more eloquently by someone as insightful as Becker! Overall, this really is the sort of book that'll hit you on every level. It's intellectually stimulating as it is spiritually satisfying; even if Becker doesn't solve how to deal with our innate fear of death and all the ways we destructively manifest that in our psyches and cultures, he gives you a crystal clear picture of things as they stand. For that alone, he's a voice I'm very grateful to have encountered.

It has only taken me a year and a half to finish this book. For various reasons, I suppose. I’ve never understood how people can leave such long reviews for a book (solely based on the time perspective), until now. This book covers so many micro topics on this one subject and they are all fascinating to ponder.
I think Becker hit it on the head when he mentions how Freud was accurate in his assessment of our behaviors, but not about the driving force: Move over Sexual-theory and the Oedipus complex. I also find his discussion of the causa-sui project, man’s existential dilemma, and the lies we tell ourselves in order to cope with the dilemma, and to live our lives (or not live them, based on our fears) incredibly profound. However, I wish he would have gone more in depth on the topic of psychology and religion; specifically, how modern man who has progressed beyond the religious folklore adapts as society “evolves” - as I felt his generalization of religion puts them in a different category and is unaddressed. I also can’t buy into his statement that religion so adeptly covers the “what happens after” question; because, I feel he only narrowly discusses other religions outside of Christianity, and he doesn’t go into new (modern) theories. That said, I realize the book is dated and current topics of interest have altered.
Otherwise, I would recommend this book to anyone looking to expand their repertoire on psychosis and thoughts on death.

Mostly embarrassing fanboyism.

"We repress our bodies to purchase a soul that time cannot destroy; we sacrifice pleasure to buy immortality; we encapsulate ourselves to avoid death. And life escapes us while we huddle within the defended fortress of character." ~Sam Keen

Consumption. There are books that I read and then there are books that I consume. Denial of Death was consumed. This reads more 1990's than 1970's, a testament to Ernest Becker's acumen. It is both critical and reverent of Sigmond Freud's psychoanalytical theories. A careful restructuring that tosses out the framework without collapsing the house.

Becker points to Charles Darwin as the harbinger of change in the mindset of modern psychology. It was Darwin's evolutionary theory that put the problem of death anxiety at the forefront of psychological assertions and, by extension, "heroism" as a defense mechanism against that anxiety. Becker elaborates on the role of heroism as a cultural construct, and theology as the standard bearer of that construct:

"...the crisis of society is, of course, the crisis of organized religion too: religion is no longer valid as a hero system, and so the youth scorn it. If traditional culture is discredited as heroics, then the church that supports that culture automatically discredits itself. If the church, on the other hand, chooses to insist on its own special heroics, it might find that in crucial ways it must work against culture, recruit youth to be anti-heroes to the ways of life of the society they live in. This is the dilemma of religion in our time."

The real conundrum of man's existence is that, in all of the animal kingdom, he alone is aware of his own mortality. It is this awareness that fuels his adult anxiety, an awareness that no matter what he accomplishes in his 60+ years of tarry and toil, he is ultimately food for worms. In the face of this terrifying realization, all of us, as sentient beings, as "meaningless creatures," deploy our coping mechanisms. Becker expounds on this assumption and analyzes it with dizzying efficiency. This is a challenging read, but one that is well worth the time.

Not reviewing the whole book but tempted to share an interesting point raised by Becker while making an analogy of religion and science. He considered both religion and science are in pursuit of the same goal ie. To attain immortality. Religion offers immortality in the afterlife and to attain it you have to "Believe" in this promise. While science not buying this irrationality tried a completely opposite position. But the ultimate goal is the same, "Long and quality life".
It's hard for me to disagree. When someone asks me perks of science and specifically medicine my first argument usually is something like " see how it has increased average life and quality of life." Which validates the above claim. Furthermore, this reminded me of two main goals of early alchemists which were, creation of an elixir of life (immortality) and changes others matters to gold ( which I think refers to economic conditions, hence quality) .modern science although never admitted it publicly but goals remain the same. Science after rejecting religion immortality project, simply started its own project and is working on immortal life in this world.

"The irony of man's condition is that the deepest need is to be free of the anxiety of death and annihilation; but it is life itself which awakens it, and so we must shrink from being fully alive."
—Ernest Becker

The sloppy latticework of gnarled tree branches anchors the foreground while Devlin and Geoffrey puff upon thick, stolen cigars, steathily removed from a father’s humidor, stashed in the closet of a house that was summarily purchased with blood, sweat and finely tuned 'n' directed tears. Their lanky fuzz-lined sillouettes bend and puff and laugh together within the sea of sundown hues that grant them visualization. Geoffrey digs deep into his tanned corduroy pockets and his left hand removes the distant, quiet clink of coins upon coins.

A square-jawed, stiff-limbed snake of iron and steel flows by the two teenagers. The word ‘train’ materializes within the skulls of both boys as their sleeves and trousers are shaken to a fluttering life by its newfound wind.

The pair reacts to the new calm by a continued puffing and swaggering, smirks etched step-by-step upon their faces.

"Let's do some penny dreadfuls," Devlin exhales along with a stacco waft of floating burnt tobacco.

Geoffrey nods affirmatively and re-digs into his corduroy for the fullest answer. He hands Devlin a metallic rustle of currency and steps over the first track in order to hover over the second. Geoffrey clinks his purchase down upon the iron and walks back towards Devlin doing the mirror-same.

They lie in wait for the next bulldozing carrier. A great silence envelopes them as they inhale and exhale, stare and unstare at nothing, anything and everything.

"Don't you ever worry about dying?" Devlin mews with unnerving sincerity.
t
"Of course. But at this millisecond I’m pretty much ready to go."

"Really?"

"Really. I keep thinking about an old friend who—even when he was merely eight years old—once told me—and told me with great certitude and sincerity—that he wouldn't care at all if his father hurled him off a cliff. This was a week before he was going to visit the Grand Canyon on a family vacation."

". . ."

"Death only really frightens me if I have the time to really, really think about it. When it's just an immediate thought, well, I usually just think about it as an either an inevitably or a blessing—which is sad, I know, but that's just how I feel most of the time. I mean, I don't want to die—I really, really don't—but more often than not, I just don't care enough either way. Darkness forever doesn't always seem like 'Darkness Forever.' Sometimes I stupidly think of it as a vacation—a vacation of blank peace—rather than the traditionally, plausibly understood, deep dark destination—the Big Sleep, the eternal dirt nap, etc—you know?"

"Wow. Yeah, I know what you mean. But most the time it mostly scares the living shit out of me and seems like the worst thing in the whole wide world."
t
"Well, it is! Of course! It's the worst! The worst reality there can every possibly be, I guess. But it's so inescapable that eventually I feel beaten into submission by the fact that it's so goddamn certain and ever-present."

". . ."

Devlin passes a pint of bourbon towards his closest friend who accepts it with a smile, a limp grip and then a simultaneously pleased and pained grimace.

"There's no real comfort to be found here, my friend. I’m sorry to say. I wish it was otherwise, but it just isn't. Sure, there's some distant "hope" to be found within the deep, deep, unanswerable mystery of it all, but all that's really real is this. This. Here. Right now. Us standing together, having a deep thought or two, sharing our thoughts—whatever those are, really—ya know?"

"Yeah, I think so, too. It's just so damn depressing—no matter what, ya know? It's so fucking hard for me to think about it all with any real seriousness. Just imagining the death of my mother makes me feel like, like, like...like, I dunno, the whole world is coming to an end. It's just the most awful feeling ever."

"Believe me, I know exactly what you mean. It's really the worst. If there's supposed to be a silver lining that's better than all the ol' cliché silver linings—which fail us left and right—well, I don’t know what that is. We—we human beings stuck in this predicament—we're simply forced to deal with it. It's horrific and unfair. Period. So let's just finish that bottle, smoke these cigars, and keep moving and talking and thinking until we can't."

The train announces its arrival in the distance. Devlin's head hangs low. Geoffrey's eyes well with fluid and his gaze cranes upward to the murky, bloody cloudiness of the slit vein of the sky, booming its melancholy echo around the world exclusively to those who can perceive it. The distance collapses at a brisk pace. The distance disappears and a single penny is ground down into a new shape for an audience of two.

I read this book for a couple reasons, the first being that I'd always been mildly interested in in it, ever since I heard Woody Allen talk about it in "Annie Hall". I asked one of my friends in school a few years ago about the book, and he said it was pretty hard reading. I'd had one psychology class at the time and figured he was probably right, that it would be difficult reading for someone who had a hard time getting through any of his text books and didn't have much interest in psychoanalysis, except as a subject in Woody Allen movies.

For various reasons--and not to sound morbid--the subject of death and mortality has been on my mind for a little while, and after watching "Annie Hall" again, and being reminded of this book again, I decided I'd give it a shot.

I'm definitely glad I decided to read "The Denial of Death," because it's given me more to think about than any nonfiction book I can recall. Maybe since I'm not used to reading books on psychoanalysis, I'd have found that with another book as well, or a number of books. I have a feeling that wouldn't be the case, though; Becker's book is written in a way that a non-psychology student like myself can understand relatively easily, but that doesn't mean it isn't insightful or professionally-written. I found the book a whole lot easier to read than I thought I would, though I did have to concentrate a little harder than I do for my normal reading. But my limited knowledge of Freud, Jung, and the other important thinkers that Becker discusses, did not prevent me from understanding or getting a lot out of this book.

Becker talks about different areas of psychoanalytical thought, arguing that a human's basic and most natural struggle is to rationalize himself as a mortal animal aware of his own mortality, something which makes him unique on this planet and also in a constant state of fear. He develops different, mostly subconscious, ways of avoiding or distracting himself from that fear. Those that succeed in this distraction live as normal people, and those who cannot find a way to cope with this often have a much rougher time.

I'm not going to try to summarize the book, as all I'd end up with is a poor description written by someone with no ability to summarize a work like this (see above paragraph for an example of this inability). Becker discusses psychoanalysis in relation to religion, dimentia, depression, and perversion, among other things. I found myself hurrying to finish pages or chapters on lunch breaks at work, eager to find out what the author was going to say next--something I don't usually feel when reading nonfiction.

If there was anything I didn't "like" about "The Denial of Death" it's that, for the seven or eight days I was reading it, I had death on my mind a lot more often than usual. I'd imagine that's natural, though, when reading a book such as this. That said, there is nothing particularly pessimistic or downbeat about the book. Becker writes in a friendly, straight-forward manner, and if anything, his tone is optimistic throughout.

This prize winning book from 1973 has immense value today because it captures how very smart people explained the world in those days and it is amazing we ever got out of the self referential tautological cave that was being created to explain who we are. There is nothing more dangerous than using just intuition and strong arguments without empirical data to reach your conclusions. That's what this author does.

He ties existential and psychoanalytical thought and the necessity for beliefs in God in to a worldview. He will tell us that it is our repression and our denial that end up giving us our neurosis. He does not use the psychoanalytical system developed by Freud because he makes our neurosis more than just dependent on sexual repressions, but nevertheless his system ends with 'castration', 'transference', and other such psychoanalytical belief systems. (That's why I feel comfortable characterizing his system as self-referential tautological. He's creating a system, some what like mathematics, by assuming truths within the system and using the system to justify the system. There's no way to refute the system unless one steps out of the system. That is to say, there is no way to show the system is incoherent within the system itself and there are things within the system which can neither be shown true or false).

He's just taking a pseudoscience and working within the system and uses the same techniques to develop his similar system of pseudoscience but he's going to call it post-Freudian. He will conclude things such as the schizophrenic and psychotic are 'neurotic' principally because they see the true reality better, the reality of the absurdity of life, the fact that we live with the certainty of death, and the inadequacy of life, the inability to live with the freedom we our given.

He will go into a whole host of reasons why we are inadequate. He'll even explain how LGBTQ people are perverted because fetishes created while growing up has led to that extreme denial of themselves (probably something to do with their lack of character).

The author emphasizes that character, culture and values determine who we become. Those who lack any of those three end up with 'neurosis', because under his psycho-dynamic system we know everyone is neurotic to some degree because one who denies his own repression must be neurotic and out of touch with reality. (There is a beautiful tautology within his belief system).

Unfortunately, to understand the 1970s one must understand how smart people did embrace the kind of thinking presented in this book. It's amazing that we as a society got out of that psychoanalytical trap. Now days, neurosis is not used as a category in the DSM for a reason.

I can highly recommend this book since it gives such an interesting window that psychoanalysis mistakenly provided to human understanding in 1973. It clearly gives a great peak into how psychiatry got off the rails. I would highly recommend reading "Shrinks: The Untold Story of Psychiatry" before attempting this pseudo-scientific book. "Shrinks" documents how psychiatry got so far off the rails and how it found itself by becoming a real science by including the empirical. This book, "Denial of Death", marks the start of the beginning from which a new era for human understanding began to finally find itself and jettison junk like this book contains.

4,5

Bu kitabın təsirli olacağını bilirdim, amma yenə də gözləntilərimi aşdı. Həqiqətən, indiyədək görüb, hətta bəzən fərq edib amma anlamlandıra bilmədiyim, və ya ümumiyyətlə fərq edə bilmədiyim detalları göstərdi kitab mənə. Təkcə bununla qalmadı əlbəttə.

Yazar insanın ölümdən nə üçün qorxduğunu və bu qorxunu aşmaq üçün nələr etdiyini araşdırır və izah edir. Bu zaman da yazar, bir çox lazımlı psixoanalitiklərin fikirlərini də önə sürür və onları şərh edərək məsələni aydınlaşdırmağa, nəticə çıxarmağa çalışırdı. Bunlara misal olaraq, ən başda Sigmund Freud, Otto Rank, Erich From və bir çox başqalarını göstərmək olar.

Kitabda mənə ən çox təsir edən məqamlardan biri "transfer" məsələsi oldu. Belə ki, bu yerdə bizim bir çox insanın təsiri altında qalmağızın səbəb və nəticələri izah olunurdu, hətta münasibətlərə də toxunulurdu. Belə ki, əslində münasibət qurmaqda məqsədimiz heç də düşündüyümüz kimi məhz eşq və ya doğrudan da, o insanda əsrarəngiz bir şeylər olmasından qaynaqlanmır. Bunun başlıca səbəbi; bizim o insanı ideallaşdıraraq, onun timsalında həyatın əsas mənasını görmək, onun timsalında öz davranışlarımıza qiymət vermək, digər tərəfdən isə əslində ölümə məhkum olan fiziki varlığımızın birinin gözündə anlam qazanmasına ehtiyac duymağımızdan qaynaqlanır. Bu yerdə insanı, bir şəxsi ideallaşdırma məsələsinə diqqət edərsiz. Çünki ümumiyyətlə, belə deməklə bu məsələnin dərinliyini izah etmək çətindir. Oxuyub anlamalısınız. Bir iki cümlə ilə izah edilə bilməyəcək qədər dərin məsələrdən danışılır çünki kitabda.

Kitabı oxuduqdan sonra çox şeyə baxış acım dəyişdi. İnsanların anlaşılmaz varlıqlar olmadığını bilirəm artıq. Sadəcə insanlar digər canlılardan fərqlidirlər, çünki onlar sorğulamağa məhkumdular. Məsələn, bir heyvan həyata gələrkən, "görəsən niyə burdayam, mənim missiyam nədən ibarətdir, həyatımın anlamı nədir" deyə soruşmur. O, sadəcə instikləri vasitəsilə hadisələrə reaksiya verir. Amma insanda bu şəkildə instiklər formalaşmayıb. O, mütləq hər şeydə bir səbəb, bir bağlantı axtarmağa məhkumdur. Elə bütün etdiyi, hətta anlamsız kimi görünən davranışları da əslində öz varlığının anlamsızlığından və sonluluğundan, yəni ölümə məhkumluğundan qorxması üzündəndir.

Kitabda tamamilə razılaşmadığım fikir olmadı, sadəcə biraz da açıla biləcəyini düşündüyüm bir-iki məqam oldu. Hətta kitab boyu yazarla birlikdə mən də düşünməyə çalışırdım, öz nöqteyi nəzərimdən müşahidə etdiklərimi və öz yaşadıqlarımı, davranış və reaksiyalarımı analiz edirdim. Bu baxımdan, düşünürəm ki, bu kitab hər birinizə yaşamı, insanları və özünüzü sorğuladacaq və tamamilə olmasa da, nisbətən daha anlaşıqlı olacaq çox şey sizin üçün. Tamamilə demirəm, çünki həyatı və ölümü tamamilə anlamaq mümkün deyil, bilirəm.

Kitabın sonunda yazar psixoanalizmlə din arasında müqayisə aparır və insanların özlərini bu çarəsizlikdən qurtarmaq üçün bu iki mənbəyə necə müraciət etdiklərini, bundan doğa biləcək nəticələri də göstərir. Sonda gəlinən nəticənin özü qorxunc görünsə də, bir o qədər də aydınlaşdırıcı olması baxımından yaxşıdı. Çünki insan çarəsizliyini qəbul etməlidir, ümumiyyətlə məhz varlığını və yaşamı olduğu kimi qəbul etməlidi məncə. Mənim düşüncəmə görə, insan normal yaşamaq istəyirsə ilk növbədə hər şeyi olduğu halı ilə qəbullanaraq, hər şeydə məhz anlam axtarmağa çalışmadan yaşamaq lazımdı.

Şiddətlə hər birinizə, ən azından araşdırmağı, aydınlaşdırmağı sevən kəslərə bu kitabı oxumağınızı tövsiyə edirəm!

Simply one of the best books I’ve ever read..