The Denial of Death

Returning to the question of heroism, Becker asks why, if our need to distinguish ourselves through heroism is so universal, people are not more courageous. Part of this is what the theologian Otto Rudolf described as humanity’s “natural feeling of inferiority in the face of the massive transcendence of creation” (50). In addition to repressing their own inner anxieties and fears and their sense of themselves as physical animals, people have to repress their feelings about the overwhelming vastness and dangers of the world (52-53). So, humans are not only afraid of death but afraid of life.

From all this, a child learns to live “without awe” and without fear (55). Through developing defenses against the realities of life and death, the child learns to exercise a sense of control and feel that they are an individual. These methods of control include trying to gain a career, collecting material goods, or by defying their family. Becker describes these as “neurotic defenses” (57).

Citing the psychiatrist Fritz Perls, Becker argues there are four layers of neurotic defenses. The first two are the methods to get along with other people in society. The third layer is our sense of feeling empty.