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/lit/ - Literature

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File: 16 KB, 252x394, The_Denial_of_Death,_first_edition.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
16921630 No.16921630 [Reply] [Original]

Is the denial of death any good?

>> No.16921653

No, put it down and walk away.

>> No.16921659

>>16921653
i didnt buy it yet

>> No.16921674

>>16921630
Yes, very good, but I wouldn't suggest reading it if you're depressed or if you don't want to be depressed.

>> No.16921693

>>16921674
I have to write an essay about death and art so i thought this could be relevant.

>> No.16921699

>>16921693
In that case, definitely read it.

>> No.16921718

>>16921630
Yes, but you should read the birth and death of meaning before DoD. Becker is severely underappreciated.

>> No.16922114

>>16921674
Go on.

>> No.16922160

>>16921674
Honestly, I disagree. Read The Denial of Death and if it makes you sad my suggestion is try The Courage to Be by Paul Tillich. One of two things will happen, you'll either love Tillich and be fine, or (like in my case) you'll think Tillich is full of shit and you'll appreciate Ernest Becker keeping it real.

>> No.16922170

It's Freudian garbage.

>> No.16922199

>>16922170
Filtered

>> No.16922632

>>16922170
He critiques Freud constantly

>> No.16923029

Can someone summarize the chapter on Kierkergaard?

>> No.16923041

Will this make me want to rope?

>> No.16923092

>>16922160
How're you feeling, anon?

>> No.16923178

>>16923029
It's one of the longest and most detailed chapters by essentially:
1. Kierkegaard and modern psychology
>Kierkegaard is one of the two most insightful psychologists in the history of mankind (along with freud)
>Kierkegaard is much closer to truth than Freud
>existential psychology amounts to confirming Kierkegaard insight's with empirical findings
>modern classification of pathologies aligns with Kierkegaard's study of characters
2. Kierkegaard's existentialsm
>K's analysis of human condition: man must cope with "the feeling of creatureliness": the realization that you are just a product of a vastly greater and largely incomprehensible world, that you can be crushed at any time, that you have little to no control on the fundamental circumstances of your life, than your are fundamentally and beset by limitations you can't overcome (like mortality, limited knowledge, etc.)
3. Existential theory of personality
>what we call character is the usual coping mechanism for that realization:
>the "normal" (neurotic) man escapes the terror of creatureliness by learning to negotiate with his environment (work, frustation, complying with social and natural systems, in exchange of food, security, emotional bonds, and some measure of enjoyment, work and compliance as a way to give a direction to life)
>the specific balance and trade-offs that one sets up in order to cope makes the content of one's character, thus character or personality is the necessary fiction of everyday existence
>however the terror of realization always lurks in the background, and the ominous sense of its lurking is called anxiety
>when this anxiety becomes so strong as to be unmanageable, you have a psychopathology
4. Kierkergaard's characteriology
>psychopathologies can be precisely classified according to how they react to the overwhelming realization of creatureliness
>they go from full schizophrenia (retreat from the world, illusion of omnipotence or importance as a reaction to the sheer terror of a chaotic world - everything is possible, nothing is understandable)
>to complete depression (slavish submission to the world, surrendering of personal will to inescapable, increasingly binding yet increasingly meaningless obligations-everything is predetermined, but nothing has value)
>in the middle lie normal neurosis, so that normal psychology can best be characterized as functional, sustainable psychopathology (this implies a certain degree of submission to your surrounding social environment)
>return to normal functioning neurosis is the goal of classical psychoanalysis, but Kierkegaard argue we can strive for more
>by embracing anxiety and creatureliness and nurturing a sense of bond with the absolute conditions that determine us, we manage to rise up to our true nature as limited being
>Kierkegaard calls this "learning at the school of anxiety", and it is kind of a tightrope walking, but it implies much greater honesty than usual about one's mortality and limitation

>> No.16923183

>>16923178
Forgot to put a 5. The school of anxiety before the last three greentext arrows, but I was running out of characters anyway.

>> No.16923195

>>16921693
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK4ztZ4tzQY Here's a documentary produced by the Ernest Becker Foundation that somewhat expounds on Denial of Death and Terror Management Theory.

>> No.16923199

>>16921630
>>16921693
It is relevant for your essay and very good. My first psychology book, filled me with ideas for short stories.
>>16921674
How could you be depressed by it? It's a soulful hopeful book.

>> No.16923231

>>16921630
What should I read before reading it?

>> No.16923390

>>16923231
The birth and death of meaning by Becker. DoD is part of a trilogy, ended by escape from evil. I read all three in the span of a month and felt like I got punched in the face at the end of EfE

>> No.16923588

>>16923390
Should I have any philosophical or psychological knowledge prior to reading that? I apologize if this is a stupid question.

>> No.16923695

>>16921630
>THE DENIAL OF DEATH
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Becker
>In November 1972, Ernest Becker was diagnosed with colon cancer. Two years later, on 6 March 1974, he would pass away at the age of 49 in Burnaby, British Columbia.

FRAUD

>> No.16923751

>>16923588
Becker tries to write it for the layman, and its fairly accessible.

>> No.16923777

>>16923390
>escape from evil.
I found this one a lot more interesting

>> No.16923793

>>16921630
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfKyNxfyWbo&ab_channel=LexFridman

This guy is a professor of psychology and a huge Becker. Really fun to listen to and provides summaries of Becker

>> No.16923799

>>16923793
Becker fan*

>> No.16923808
File: 436 KB, 937x635, orson.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
16923808

>>16923793
> a huge Becker

>> No.16923835

>>16923199
because it builds up with no resolution i would suspect.

>> No.16924037

>>16921674
Actually I was clinically depressed when I read this book.
It helped me.

>> No.16924048

>>16923777
Why is that? What's the gist of it?

>> No.16924264

>>16924048
Read it and find out.

>> No.16925227

>>16923178

I maintain that this is describing it backward and inside-out. That the "human condition" is that of Monism, that the world neither precedes nor outlasts anyone, that it is empty and inert, and that the "coping" consists of deliberately affirming it and seeking death therein.

>> No.16925234

>>16925227
Unclear, you're going to need to expand.