Talat's Reviews> The Denial of Death

Becker introduces the very basic idea that we humans have four distinguishing features: (1) we can contemplate our death, we do contemplate -- and try to deny -- our death, and (2) we can create symbolic realities of thought and action, and (3) we project and perpetuate symbolic realities of thought and action to create systems that will outlive -- in an everyday sense "transcend" our physical mortality; we want to symbolically live on and some of us succeed in doing so (a major point at the end of the Epic of Gilgamesh); and (4) through projection and transference, and in order to feel we are participating in realities that transcend death, we latch onto heroes of all kinds, whether they be religious (Prophets, Gurus, Messiahs, saints), or cultural (writers, actors, musicians), or athletic (sports heroes and teams). But ultimately, Becker like Kierkegaard and Buber (whom he mentions often along with Otto Rank and Paul Tillach) is calling us to become our own heroes, or at least acknowledges that some of us rise to the occasion, raise the bar, so to speak and live our lives as our own kind of heroes, a life that Becker calls "cosmic heroism." For Becker, because death-anxiety is the pivot around which all symbolic action turns, because death generates the motivation for the symbolic construction of "immortality projects," society is essentially "a codified hero system" and every society is in the sense that it represents itself as ultimate, at its heart a religious system. Becker both critiques and validates our need for projection and transference because these are at times "life-enhancing" (p. 158) and "creative projections" that contribute to our relationships (here he cites Buber). Becker is also an exquisite writer. He is more than a pleasure to read -- he is an inspiration. I read Becker as saying that if we face the reality of our death, we can greater gain the power to consciously create our symbolic immortality and become "cosmic heroes." Becker has joined in my mind, for original break-through thinking the ranks of Buber, Bateson, and Burke (whom he often cites). You can read excellent essays on Becker's work athttp://faculty.washington.edu/nelgee/I present a fuller review of _Denial of Death_ and some of Becker's other writings at my site, which I encourage you to visit for a fuller review and overview of Becker and his work:www.halmantle.com.You can also find some very good YouTubes. Search under Becker, Sam Keen, & Sheldon Solomon. Sheldon Solomon is among a team of social psychologists who have empirically tested and validated Becker's ideas. Dare I say, "forever yours,"?