The Denial of Death

Summary

A wide-ranging work of cultural anthropology and existential psychology arguing that the awareness of mortality is the fundamental driver of human behavior, and that civilizations are elaborate symbolic projects designed to suppress that terror. Drawing on Kierkegaard, Freud, and Otto Rank, Becker contends that heroism, religion, and art all serve as bulwarks against the knowledge of death. The book has had a lasting influence on psychology, philosophy, and the study of religion.