The Denial of Death

By: Ernest Becker

Narrated by: Raymond Todd

Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1974 and the culmination of a life's work, The Denial of Death is Ernest Becker's brilliant and impassioned answer to the "why" of human existence. In bold contrast to the predominant Freudian school of thought, Becker tackles the problem of the vital lie: man's refusal to acknowledge his own mortality. In doing so, he sheds new light on the nature of humanity and issues a call to life and its living that still resonates more than 30 years after its writing.

©1973 Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. (P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"A brave work of electrifying intelligence and passion, optimistic and revolutionary, destined to endure." (New York Times Book Review)

"Ranks among the truly important books of the year. Professor Becker writes with power and brilliant insight." (Publishers Weekly)

Symbology is central to all human behavior

Where does The Denial of Death rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

The subject is the best, the performance by the reader is OK. Becker's book explains many of the symbols used in society and cultures to attach "meaning" to our lives. It's a fascinating study of human behavior and explains many of the polarizations in the world.

What did you like best about this story?

Becker was on his deathbed when his manuscript arrived at the publisher. The publisher rushed to his home to spend the last few hours with him. The poignancy of this moment is not lost on the publisher, nor the reader. As Becker faced his own death, his insights were enhanced and more clear.

What three words best describe Raymond Todd’s voice?

Subtle. Slow. Unemotive.

What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?

That man is basically animal. And, as the knowledge of our differences to animal (thought, emotion, rationale thought, opposable thumbs, design and intention) we created symbols to attach meaning to our lives. As we denied our own mortality the creation of symbols, heros and God's became a necessary coping mechanism. However, those same symbols (religion, nationality, race, gender, sports teams, etc.) became our undoing as we reified them and gave them power. This power has been used and abused over the millennia to manipulate and control the masses.

Any additional comments?

Read this book. So many aspects of the human existence become more clear.

***WARNING: APPROACH WITH CAUTION***

This book is profound, well written, and well narrated as well as being convincing in its central point that most puzzling human behavior stems from our own overwhelming, suppressed fear of death. (The author certainly deserves the Pulitzer Prize he was awarded for this outstanding work.). For some problems, DENIAL really is the best option...Fear of Death is one of those cases. Apparently some people find this book intellectually enjoyable but it is not a self help book. It does not propose a solution to death. Quite the contrary. For those who are predisposed to extraordinary fear of death this book can tear the lid off a very functional coping mechanism - our natural tendency to denial.

Approach this book with caution. You can’t easily return to denial once you read this and it can leave you freaked out for days, weeks, months, or more. That happened to me and I know at least three others with similar major reactions. One friend said it left him”seriously freaked out for a year and a half.”

Pretty Good

Raymond Todd narrarates this book as if he wrote it. Definitely a solid performance.

As far as Becker is concerned, the book is a slow boil up up to the last chapter, where it is boiling over with penetrating insights into the failure of modern psychology.

This book is worth reading several times throughout the process of reviewing Becker's sources. Some ideas are abstracted heavily. Through subsequent readings, the book transforms from a book of bold conclusions to one of carefully reasoned arguments.

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The content of the book is excellent. Given the complexity of the content, however, the reader read the book much too fast.

It's really good. but not for everybody

Just tolerate the gratuitous references to Kierkegaard and Nietzsche and ignore it's esoteric pretentiousness. But yeah, it is GREAT.

This blew my mind!

I need to listen to it many more times to pick up the pieces I missed. At first I was avert to the constant references to other philosophers works but I now understand it as a more academic approach rather then a self help book. This guy was incredibly intelligent but I don't agree with everything he says. There are too many references to Freud that are not really needed. I would be up for an abridged version or lay mans.

Over

intellectualizing! I learned that because Freud thought humans problems resided around some sexual issues or another that denied wholeness was wrong. It is because no one can deal with the idea of dying... Whew... The person who will remain nameless that suggested we all read this must have been very lost to begin with! Don't buy it... Unless, you are in the same business as the author was in...

Oddly comforting.

This book is a desperately needed pointing toward the biggest existential elephant in the room. If you have done a great deal of work coming to terms with death and uncertainty, you may find Becker, at times, paints with a quite bleak and cynical brush, but (in my opinion) it's just a literary tool to drive the point home in the face of the mountain of tidy and happy-go-lucky belief systems out there. This work needed to fly in the face of basically anything humans do that is not creaturely, and it takes a heavy hand to dissolve nearly every form of reality an individual can build for themselves.

The modern reader might bristle at the use if "him" pronouns, "man" instead if "people," and the presentation of gender roles - especially walking dangerously close to depicting transgender people as mentally ill when he speaks about transvestites as fetishizing being women. I held my breath a bit at times because this book is %90 some of the most brilliant insights on the human condition I have ever read and %10 awkward gender role presumptions, yet still valuable insights because it speaks of gender struggles of normative culture that still exist today.

I encourage anyone to try and read it for its value and try to bear in mind that a major premise is that neurosis is the only rational way to deal with reality and is not an attempt to condemn any sort of lifestyle.

I read nonfiction books like this and haven't read anything so important in my life. Especially if your struggle with meaninglessness and just want someone to say, "yes, you're right," so you can feel connected with yourself and what you are feeling in order to move through it and make your own meanings out of life not because there exists an objective meaning to discover but because creating your own is the actual path to personhood.

Death Anxiety, a book to think about.

Would you listen to The Denial of Death again? Why?

I would listen to this book again. It is wonderfully written, much to ponder. The only problem is the reader goes to fast. The subject matter is complex. The reader goes so fast one does not have time to ponder what just slapped him/her across the face! It is delightful. A must read.

Awesome content if you are open minded

Loved all the references if famous phycologist and authors. It gave me new light to trivial things that I never thought too deeply about. Highly enlightening. The narrator’s performance was ok but I found it appropriate for this content.