The Denial of Death

A key component of Ernest Becker’s thesis is the idea that the human condition is built on a balance between the bodily and the spiritual, or, to use Becker’s own terms, the physical and the symbolic (231).

Drawing on Freudian ideas of psychoanalysis, Becker argues that from very early childhood, people are at least subconsciously aware of this binary once they become aware of genital differences and of their own body’s production of excrement (30-42). As Becker writes, “The body [...] is one’s animal fate that has to be struggled against in some ways” (44). According to Becker, the fear of death is the primary motivator of all human activity (x), but this fear is closely related to this tension between our having physical bodies and having higher awareness. Specifically, we are aware of our bodies’ frailty, limits, and mortality, but we are capable of envisioning a mental or spiritual transcendence. Becker even notes that awareness of this binary can drive people insane (27).

Becker implies that there is no real way to get past this tension. However, we do strive for what Becker calls heroism, which is how humans can achieve transcendence (5-6). Ancient cultures and traditional religions used to provide avenues for this heroism through, for example, the Christian belief that an individual can ascend to the higher reality of Heaven (160).