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.
Explores life's meaning through the lens of belief in God and lived realities including boredom, denial of death, and suicide.
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Denial of Death, a penetrating and insightful perspective on the source of evil in our world.“A profound, nourishing book…absolutely essential to the understanding...
Uses the disciplines of psychology, anthropology, sociology and psychiatry to explain what makes people act the way they do.
Demonstrates how an unconscious fear of death motivates nearly all human goals, behaviors, and cultures, examining the role of mortality awareness in prompting social unrest and war.
How do you prepare? What will you need? With passion and compassion, Gillick chronicles the stories of elders who have struggled with housing options, with medical care decisions, and with finding meaning in life.
In this edited collection of essays, professionals and academics from across the spectrum of the humanities and social sciences outline the ways in which Generative Death Anxiety theory impacts their...
David R. Goldfield, Promised Land: The South since 1945 (Arlington Heights, Ill.: Harlan-Davidson, 1987), 203–04. Japanese industries may have been particularly sensitive to the environmental effects of their industries given Minamata ...
Examines how Shakespeare dramatizes the strategies people use to deal with death's inevitability, discusses the nature of Shakespearean tragedy, and also looks at the theme of immortality.
Above all, she listened to the stories of those who were close to death. What Neumann found is that death in contemporary America is much more complicated than we think.
In this revised edition of the best-selling memoir that has been read by over a million people worldwide, with translations in 29 languages, Bronnie expresses how significant these regrets are and how we can positively address these issues ...