Paperback, 336 pages
English language
Published May 8, 1997 by Free Press.
A promising premise devolves into endless ridiculous psychoanalyst pseudoscience babble.
If only I could take back the time I spent reading this masturbatory psychobabble and instead used it to re-watch Rick And Morty, I would've learnt a whole lot more than what I got out from reading this pseudo-science.
I first learnt about The Denial of Death when I was watching my first film from Woody Allen - Annie Hall. The witty, self-deprecating humor with subtle hints about problems of humanity was right up my alley, and so naturally the book referenced also caught my attention. The Pulitzer prize was a cherry on top. Recently, it also got heavily referenced in one of videos of the film analysis channel - Like Stories of Old.
And so my curiosity peaked and with a great enthusiasm, I picked up this book.
The central theme of Death and how we shape our lives around it was an intriguing theme and our need for …
If only I could take back the time I spent reading this masturbatory psychobabble and instead used it to re-watch Rick And Morty, I would've learnt a whole lot more than what I got out from reading this pseudo-science.
I first learnt about The Denial of Death when I was watching my first film from Woody Allen - Annie Hall. The witty, self-deprecating humor with subtle hints about problems of humanity was right up my alley, and so naturally the book referenced also caught my attention. The Pulitzer prize was a cherry on top. Recently, it also got heavily referenced in one of videos of the film analysis channel - Like Stories of Old.
And so my curiosity peaked and with a great enthusiasm, I picked up this book.
The central theme of Death and how we shape our lives around it was an intriguing theme and our need for hero-worship was a very interesting idea. However things started to go downhill the moment Freud came into picture. Even though Ernest Becker repeatedly mentioned how Freud got a lot of the things wrong and tried to bring out later thinkers' nuanced theories, it was clear that he worshipped Freud. How else can you explain a whole chapter on root-causing the times when "The Great Freud" fainted and trying to analyze the possible reasons! And then there's one chapter called "Perversions" where he declares homosexuality a "problem" to be solved and analyzes it to say that people engage in this act because they are trying to rebel against carnal reality of their existence being for the sole purpose of procreation. What bullshit!
Maybe this book deserves a place in history as a testament to our mistakes and how we used to treat genuine illnesses not through science but by psychobabble.
Did not finish.
An argument built on the Freudian air-castle.
Hard to write a concise summary or reaction to the books as it would basically amount to a major philosophical discussion... suffice it to say, forty years on, book with still intriguing, interesting, depressing, uplifting, accusatory and redemptive.
The audiobook version was well done, though I would recommend against listening while multi-tasking if you are easily distracted like me -- found myself rewinding several times after noticing my focus drifting. Even when I was 100% dialed in, I had to give some sections a second listen to parse all the information being presented.
