Description
Book Synopsis'It made me rethink the roots of our deepest fears and insecurities, and why we often disappoint ourselves in how we manifest them' Bill Clinton, Guardian Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1974 and the culmination of a life's work, The Denial of Death is Ernest Becker's brilliant and impassioned answer to the 'why' of human existence. In bold contrast to the predominant Freudian school of thought, Becker tackles the problem of the vital lie - man's refusal to acknowledge his own mortality. The book argues that human civilisation is a defence against the knowledge that we are mortal beings. Becker states that humans live in both the physical world and a symbolic world of meaning, which is where our 'immortality project' resides. We create in order to become immortal - to become part of something we believe will last forever. In this way we hope to give our lives meaning. In The Denial of Death, Becker sheds new light on the nature of humanity and issues a call to life and its living that still resonates decades after it was written.
Trade ReviewIt made me rethink the roots of our deepest fears and insecurities, and why we often disappoint ourselves in how we manifest them -- Bill Clinton * Guardian *
A brave work of electrifying intelligence and passion, optimistic and revolutionary, destined to endure. * New York Times Book Review *
An original, creative contribution to a synthesis of this generation's extensive explorations in psychology and theology. * Boston Herald *
One of those rare masterpieces that will stimulate your thoughts, your intellectual curiosity, and last but not least, your soul. * Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, author, On Death and Dying *
Concerns the 'universality of the fear of death'... Its approach is more philosophical than psychologically or medically empirical. -- Theology
Meditating on death and its influence on our culture... that the fear of death is the single motivating fact of human endeavour and that all art and philosophy come from trying to deal with obsolescence. -- The Catholic Herald
One of the few great books of the 20th or any other century. -- Albuquerque Journal Book Review
It is hard to overestimate the importance of this book: Becker succeeds brilliantly in what he sets out to do, and the effort was necessary. -- The Chicago Sun-Times
