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Denial of Death (Pulitzer Prize 1974)
Ernest Becker / $11.20
Humans share an overwhelming survival instinct with all living species. However, human beings alone have
the brain power to understand that this is ultimately doomed to failure. Hence, for humans, death anxiety
is more than a response to actual danger situations; it is a psychological constant and is what distinguishes
human psychological, emotional and spiritual life from that of other species. Ongoing existential death
anxiety must be repressed for normal mental health, and this is the energy which, at its deepest level,
is cooking away in the human unconscious. Forces noticed by other investigators of the human psyche, such
as sex and aggression, accumulation, will to power, and mimetic desire, are best understood as historically
and culturally shaped manifestations of this deeper ontological need to deny death and seek symbolic
immortality. (Contributed by Daniel Liechty)
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Escape from Evil
Ernest Becker / $16.95
The most important aspect of culture is its function as a mechanism for assisting people in the repression
of existential death anxiety, identifying evil and giving each person a meaningful role transcendence of that
evil. When culture functions well, this role is entirely unconscious, unnoticed by those engaged in the
cultural pageant. When it fails in this role, people lose 'faith' in their cultural values and this repressed
anxiety begins to surface. The irony of collective human violence is that, because we unconsciously identify
as evil that which threatens 'death' to our cultural hero system, it is most often executed by people on both
sides thoroughly convinced they are pursuing the good and seeking to eradicate evil. Psychology allows us to
deconstruct the cultural hero system and see how repressed death anxiety is the puppeteer pulling the
historical strings of humanity. Thus there is a possible way out of the continuing cycle of human violence.
It is not clear, however, that humans as a species are ready, willing, or even able to look this knowledge
full in the face, since the price paid to do so is deconstruction of any and all species sense of transcending
meaning and ultimate purpose. (Contributed by Daniel Liechty)
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The Birth and Death of Meaning (2nd edition)
Ernest Becker / $16.95
In his earlier works, Ernest Becker noticed and highlighted the intimate connection between mental health
and maintaining a sense of self as a worthy actor in an ultimately significant drama (i.i.e.., 'self-esteem
maintenance.') In the second edition of The Birth and Death of Meaning, Becker begins to highlight
his growing awareness that knowledge of death tends to undermine this sense of ultimate significance of
the human drama and thus creates an existential problem of individual and collective meaning in human life.
(Contributed by Daniel Liechty)
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In the Wake of 9/11: The Psychology of Terror
Tom Pyszczynski, Sheldon Solomon, and Jeff Greenberg /
$20.97
In the Wake of 9/11 explores the emotions of despair, fear, and anger that arose after the terrorist attacks
on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the Autumn of 2001. The authors analyze reactions to the attacks
through the lens of terror management theory, an existential psychological model that explains why humans
react the way they do to the threat of death and how this reaction influences their post-threat cognition
and emotion. The theory provides ways to understand and reduce terrorism's effect and possibly find resolutions
to conflicts involving terrorism. The authors focus primarily on the reaction in the United States to the 9/11
attack, but their model is applicable to all instances of terrorism, and they expand their discussion to
include the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This fascinating book has practical implications and will be an
irreplaceable resource for mental health practitioners, researchers, and anyone concerned with the causes
and effects of terrorism. 335 pages.
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Death and Denial : Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Legacy of Ernest Becker
Daniel Liechty / $66.95
The meta-thesis of this book is that Ernest Becker's theory of Generative Death Anxiety represents a fecund and creative organizing principle for uniting the humanities and the social sciences. Bringing together 25 original chapters contributed by 28 top-notch scholars and professionals, each chapter interacts in its own way with the theory of Generative Death Anxiety, showing its utility and fruitfulness as an interpretive tool within its respective disciplinary sphere. The chapters are gathered into five areas of reflection: Psychology, Psychotherapy, Social Science, Philosophy, and Religious Studies. The cumulative effect of these multi-layered essays clearly demonstrates the overall thesis, that the theory of Generative Death Anxiety represents a valuable tool for uniting humanities and social science academics and professionals in a common project of learning.
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