"DENIAL OF DEATH, THE" (ERNEST BECKER).   Term Paper ID:22431 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Critical review of work on modern society's fear & denial of death, need for heroism, religion, psychology.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Critical review of work on modern society's fear & denial of death, need for heroism, religion, psychology. Paper Introduction: Ernest Becker in his book The Denial of Death suggests that human beings are motivated largely by the fear of death and their own denial of death, both attitudes existing at the same time in every individual. The attempt to transcend death is not only an underlying rationale for the activity of every individual but has been the underlying rationale for all mankind and for the creation of cultural means by which to effect such transcendence. There are certain culturally accepted means by which human beings attempt to move beyond death, including heroism, religion, and even neurotic behavior. Becker's analysis suggests a way of dealing with human neurosis in a therapeutic setting, and his analysis also suggests certain truths about basic human nature and the condition of the human being in society. The idea that human beings fear death should be self- Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Becker describes the need to be ahero as a problem, often because we cannot all become heroes: The crisis of modern society is precisely that the youth no longer feel heroic in the plan for action that their culture has set up. The hero is indeed often thought of as immortal, as we cansee when we look back at history and mythology--fame and heroic actionlives beyond the life-span of the individual and seems to give certainpeople lives far beyond what their contemporaries knew. They thus behave accordingly, but they will never beable to transcend that basic fact--they will die no matter how heroic theymay be in living. In the face of the terror of the world, the miracle of creation, the crushing power of reality, not even the tiger has secure and limitless power, much less the child (54). The hero does havea life past the normal span of years. Work CitedBecker, Ernest. Becker is trying in this book to effect asynthesis of the work of the psychoanalysts with the doctrines of religion. They don't believe it is empirically true to the problems of their lives and times (6).Clearly, though, Becker believes it does have validity in life today as italways has and that an understanding of this would help solve the sorts ofproblems he sees developing because of the failure of the heroic paradigm: We are living a crisis of heroism that reaches into every aspect of our social life: the dropouts of university heroism, of business and career heroism, of political-action heroism; the rise of anti-heroes, those who would be heroic each in his own way or like Charles Manson with his special "family," those whose tormented heroics lash out at the system that itself has ceased to represent agreed heroism (6-7). The Denial of Death. Otto Rank is thepsychoanalytical thinker who is considered closest to Becker's ownapproach. Human beingssuffer through this dilemma because, while they are animals and sharecertain characteristics with animals, they are also the only animals thatknow they will die. Wewant to be heroes, but we also shy away from what it takes to becomeheroes. Becker approaches the issue of death in much the same way as theexistentialists, specifically the Christian existentialists such asHeidegger and Kierkegaard. Theattempt to transcend death is not only an underlying rationale for theactivity of every individual but has been the underlying rationale for allmankind and for the creation of cultural means by which to effect suchtranscendence. The idea that human beings fear death should be self-evident, thoughthe connection between this truth and the idea of the hero and some of theother human behaviors Becker says are linked is harder to see without theclose analysis Becker gives the issue. For Becker, this will always be a failure. Becker indeed refers specifically to thephilosophy of Heidegger as he states, He argued that the basic anxiety of man is anxiety about being- in-the-world, as well as anxiety of being-in-the-world. For Becker, we are all fearful of both life and death at one and thesame time, and just as we are curious about death in spite of our fear, soare we curious about life. Becker's analysis suggests a way of dealing with humanneurosis in a therapeutic setting, and his analysis also suggests certaintruths about basic human nature and the condition of the human being insociety. Becker sees this as a desperateendeavor for the human being to find justification in a universe that seemsindifferent. Mankind has longthought there must be something beyond death, but this may be no more thanwishful thinking and a way of staving off the fear that death is really theend of the self. Becker does not see life as a series of creations intendedto effect our repression of sexuality and aggression as does Freud.Instead, he believes that the illusions by which we live have beendeveloped as part of our denial of death. New York: The Free Press, 1973.----------------------- 7 To do this, though, he must deny some of the basic tenets ofpsychoanalysis. He is pointing out the problem and its source and warningagainst false prophets rather than trying to become one himself. One aspect of this need for justification leads to the creation ofthe hero and for the need to become a hero. Becker is most interested in having us understand andrecognize the reality of the fears that possess us, fears both of livingand dying, and to deal with them in a realistic manner. He sees theproblems in contemporary society as deriving from our denial of death andfrom the various walls we have constructed to keep knowledge of death away: Modern man is drinking and drugging himself out of awareness, or he spends his time shopping, which is the same thing. As human beings, we have to make choices, andour choices are torn between these opposing forces and opposing fears. Becker finds thatall lives are ultimately heroic failures, and yet the heroism derives fromtrying to be heroic at all. Becker cites Kierkegaard in terms of certain elements of life thatare meant to enable us to transcend death: In Kierkegaard, psychology and religion, philosophy and science, poetry and truth merge indistinguishably together in the yearning of the creature (92).Kierkegaard seems more optimistic about our ability to transcend death insome small way. It does not matter that we have nochoice in either of these, except perhaps in the case of suicide, where wemake a conscious choice to change from one state of fear to another. We are heroic in the course of things simply because we live, andwe are heroic as well because we die. Heroism iscommendable, but it is also futile in that it cannot overcome death. There are certain culturally accepted means by which humanbeings attempt to move beyond death, including heroism, religion, and evenneurotic behavior. Or, alternatively, he buries himself in psychology in the belief that awareness all by itself will be some kind of magical cure for his problems (284).Becker does not offer any magic cures and is not clear that there can be acure at all. Becker considers the nature of religion as a creation to cope withthese fears both of living and dying and as an institution standing in manyways at the nexus of the two. The mass of humanbeings are simply forgotten, and after a few generations not even theirdescendants remember their names or their lives. They may live ongenetically, but they do not live on in any other way. That is, both fear of death and fear of life, of experience and individuation (53).The human being fears life as much as death and shrinks from the manypossibilities of life: Man is reluctant to move out into the overwhelmingness of his world, the real dangers of it; he shrinks back from losing himself in the all-consuming appetites of others, from spinning out of control in the clutchings and clawings of men, beasts and machines (53).The human being is beset by a form of impotence, an inability to act: Not only his impotence to avoid death, but his impotence to stand alone, firmly rooted in his own powers. The fear of death and ourfascination with death derive from the same factor--death is an unknownquantity, the cessation of all that we know and the introduction of a newmystery we fear because we do not know what it means. Ernest Becker in his book The Denial of Death suggests that humanbeings are motivated largely by the fear of death and their own denial ofdeath, both attitudes existing at the same time in every individual. Becker hints at this when he writes, Through countless ages of evolution the organism has had to protect its own integrity; it had its own physiochemical identity and was dedicated to preserving it (2).Death is evidence that we cannot protect it beyond a certain point, andthrough religion and other institutions we have tried to effect suchcreation to avoid death being the end. Becker finds that psychoanalysis is anotherinstitution created to deal with these same issues, and thus he finds aclose relationship between religion and psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis and religion arethemselves heroic acts as they are attempts to overcome death, but noreligion and no therapy can make the terror of death disappear. Rank describes life as if it were a meeting of sin and neurosis,and for Rank, the neurotic becomes heroic by living entirely within himselfand his own ego. As awareness calls for types of heroic dedication that his culture no longer provides for him, society contrives to help him forget. The terror of existence is what is addressed by psychoanalysis, andthis as well is doomed to failure. Becker says that human beingswant to stand out from the crowd and that they believe they do this throughheroic action. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.