Review: The Denial of Death

Becker is, of course, a psychoanalyst. That means much of what he says can be disregarded in our modern era. It means that his instruction on schizophrenia and depression, both reactions to the fear of death, can be ignored for the more scientific understanding of dopamine.

however, he does offer some interesting psychological and philosophical insights on man. namely, the human condition is centered on death, and the avoidance of it. Death makes things meaningless, and so we cling to other things. The evangelical, Becker might say, is right to protest, without God there is no meaning. The response is a duh.

The fear of death arises from the fact that we're animals who are conscious, planning creatures. It makes you wonder how elephants and other mammals look at death. This conscious ability puts us in conflict and self-hate with ourselves. Heisman's Suicide Note seems to have taken cues from this.

there are three solutions to this problem: religious, sexual and creative. the first is to create literal mortality through s greater non-material power. the second is to wow away the distinction between body and mind through sex. the third is to create an immortal work, preserving the mind. Kierkegaard, Freud, and Otto Rank, loosely, correlate to each solution.

We're also sort of helpless. Becker agrees with Schopenhauer in that it is sort of impossible to open oneself to "great sublimeness." You would go insane. Psychotherapy doesn't help either.