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5.0 out of 5 stars
For Becker fans and kindred souls: something for everyone, April 3, 2003
This review is from: Death and Denial: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Legacy of Ernest Becker (Hardcover)
Having thrilled to the writings of Ernest Becker for years (especially "The Birth and Death of Meaning," Second Edition; "The Denial of Death," and "Escape from Evil"), it was heartening to eventually discover the Ernest Becker Foundation (EBF). To connect with the EBF is to connect with a diverse network of scholars, practitioners, and others who value and utilize Becker's profound synthesis of what it means to be human - that is, a self-conscious animal that knows it will die. To connect with the EBF is to also connect with Daniel Liechty, foremost expert on Ernest Becker and author of numerous books and articles incorporating Becker's ideas.
In "Death and Denial: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Legacy of Ernest Becker," Liechty brings twenty-five of those diverse scholars and practitioners under the conceptual umbrella of Generative Death Anxiety (GDA), a theory which "suggests that at the deepest level, human behavior is motivated by the unavoidable need to shield oneself from consciousness of human mortality." Liechty's superb introduction provides an overview of GDA as an "organizing principle for the social sciences and humanities," including where Becker's work fits within the context of other psychological theorists, and where GDA fits as a competing depth-psychological theory - duly noting how Terror Management theorists are putting that part of GDA amenable to empirical laboratory investigation to the test (see Chapter 1). Liechty then introduces the chapters and contributors to follow, appropriately divided into five categories: psychological reflections, psychotherapeutic reflections, social scientific reflections, philosophical reflections, and religious reflections.
This volume is a "must read" for any serious student of Ernest Becker or those inclined to dig deep into the fundamental nature of our species and the challenges we face. As a non-academic type, I did find some chapters to be a tad too scholarly and esoteric - for my tastes, anyway. But there were plenty of others I could really sink my teeth into, like the beautiful summary of terror management theory and current research (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, and Solomon, Chapter 1), forgiveness and connecting with others in real ways beyond "heroic illusions" (Halling, Chapter 3), a call for medicine and psychiatry to understand the dynamics of neurosis and existential anxiety and appreciate the upsides of living with less denial and illusion (Elgee, Chapter 13), our existential vulnerability to toxic leaders and finding the courage to move beyond their simple answers to grapple with anxiety and the search for meaning (Lipman-Blumen, Chapter 15), and the processes by which we transform our enemies into enemies of God, thus making warfare "applied theology" and a battle against good and evil (Keen, Chapter 21). There are others, and these are just examples of the rich, thought provoking contributions collected in this work. For Becker aficionados and kindred souls, there's something here for everyone, and thus, I would recommend it without qualification.
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