Decades ago I read a book by Joseph Chilton Pierce titled, 'The Crack in the Cosmic Egg'. That book used an egg inside an eggshell as a metaphor for the state of the average human being living inside his or her eggshell world of ideas, traditions, beliefs, and thoughts. It went on to discuss how that 'eggshell' of ideas, traditions, beliefs, and thoughts can be false or misleading, and talked about the manner in which one can escape that shell in the interest of building an 'eggshell' unique to the individual and not necessarily inherited or imposed. Of course, to not remain open to change and to cease to challenge one's 'shell' is to run the risk of simply reconstructing another that is equally misleading.

No two books have affected my beliefs and thoughts any more than have Becker's 'Escape from Evil' and 'The Denial of Death'. I read the latter in college and have since read it again on several occasions. I read 'Escape from Evil' nearly as a sequel to 'Denial of Death' and recommend it as a companion work.

I would in retrospect probably read 'Escape from Evil' before 'Denial of Death.' But to say that is of course quantum mechanics. I've already performed the experiment the results of which I've measured but whose effects have now altered my 'quantum state' of thinking. My opinion might have been the reverse had I read 'Escape...' first. C'est la vie.

So read them as you will, but please, do read them. The language is somewhat dated, his statements are at times prone to the same errors of logic that most of us are prone to and he focuses on only those authors and works that support his thesis, but it is very likely 'Escape from Evil' will crack the shell of your beliefs about your world as well as our shared world and will change the way you think, perhaps, even hopefully, for the remainder of your life.

I wish Ernest Becker were still around, telling us what he thinks of the world. He'd certainly be able to shed some light on what's going on now. ESCAPE FROM EVIL, while not as rigorous as his earlier work (it was published after his death, against his wishes) transposes the more individual explorations of death in DENIAL OF DEATH to larger society. What he finds is not necessarily encouraging, but it is always enlightening, invigorating, and truthful. He works hard to look at hard realities and, further, though he is not optimistic, he is interested in a rigorous hope, a hope without illusion. Becker helps you lose your illusions with aplomb.

It begins with a viewpoint of that of the anthropologist. Power at it's very beginnings. This book is written in an enjoyable cerebral manner. Like I mentioned in the review title, this is where to start with a nuts and bolts understanding of power. The other books on power I have read are written in a manner that assume prior knowledge of the topic. Start here and move on to "Kinds of Power" by James Hillman. These books sequence very well.

There is no book out there which better explains the role education should be afforded in keeping a vital democracy; and none that explains better, the necessity of good education as fundamental to democracy.

For those literature students or literary minded people who find the great bulk of critical models often destroy the very art that they purportedly enrich, this book offers a delightfully refreshing approach. A study based loosely on Ernest Becker's Denial of Death, The Creative Myth and the Cosmic Hero proposes a rich interdisciplinary approach to the interpretation of literature as sacred cultural icon and totem for individual direction. While the intended audience of the book is a decidedly academic one, the rhetoric and wordplay of the author are accesible to anyone with a basic knowledge of mythic interplay within visceral cultural myths and contemporary media. While applying the fundamentally structuralist "Monomyth" system to everything from Greek mythology to relatively recent works of fiction and film, Dr. Ron Evans advocates an inclusive and life-affirming approach to the asthetic that enlivens even the most cursory of readings. Delving into the anthropological work of Joseph Campbell, the social philosophies of Otto Rank, and the archetypal psychology of Carl Jung, Evans emerges with a paradigm for literary theory that is both uplifting and intellectually coherant. For those who wish to read inclusively, to draw new life to old texts or provide a critical framework for the appraisal of new ones, I highly encourage this book as an overview of mythic readings. The result is an appreciation for literature as a useful guide through one's own heroic struggle.

Dancing Among the Maenads is a both sound, well organized, scientific and creative, indeed an artistic study of the psychopathology of compulsive drug use. Largely based on evidence obtained in case studies, the transference-countertransference manifestations of which are influenced by modern object relations oriented psychoanalytic theory and evidence, this unusual and apealing book speaks to the myriad of complicated, early, preoedipal urges drug usage seeks to permit expression to and the complexity of the intrapsychic and interactional psychological phenomena related to drug use by individuals of varying levels of development and its effects on one's interactions with other individuals and society. A special aspect of the book is its use of relevant material from data obtained from reports and suppositions to be found in the media concerning drug-addicted folk heroes, as well as famous autobiographical studies and mythological drug users.
The book makes a strong case for questioning the current popular emphasis on the biology of drug use.

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.

A thoughtful, intelligent analysis of Becker's work. Very well done

This book will change your life! What Ernest Becker has accomplished is a synthesis of the kernels of truth that lie in all psychological theories. He speaks to the reader and demonstrates, that the single overwhelming motivator of the human being is his fear of death and his subsequent denialof his impending morality. Deny your mortality, but buy this book!

All lovers of existentialism will enjoy Becker's treatment of life and death. Becker won the Pulitzer Prize for this work when it was first published in 1974. Ironically and tragically, Becker himself died of cancer that very same year. He was 50 years old. I have been unsuccessful in my efforts to find out whether or not Becker knew of his sickness when he wrote the work. He certainly writes as one who understands the darkness of human life. Becker's thesis is that human personality and behavior has its deepest roots in our denying our death (thus the title). By this he means not only our death itself, but all of the horrors associated with our mortality as human beings. Becker makes frequent reference to Otto Rank, and reiterates Rank's point that all human cultural creation is inevitably religious in nature. There is also a wonderful treatment of Freud which will be especially refreshing to all those nauseauted by modern attempts to dress up Freud's theories and make them appear more optomistic than they are, as well as a discussion of Freud's breaks with Jung and others. There is even a chapter on Kierkegaard. Becker also attempts to show that neurosis is at least in part a result of not being able to erect the 'denial of death' defense mechanisms so many do, and that those who traverse the depths of human existence cannot but go mad to some degree. He says at one point, "No wonder the road of the artist so often detous through the madhouse." Finally, Becker bashes modern psychology, which makes this book an absolute must for any deep thinker who is considering entering this field. The Denial of Death is brutally honest, scholastic, and beautiful. Best of all, Becker doesn't make the all too common mistake of attempting to provide a solution (something all lovers of Camus will appreciate). The last 10 pages alone make this book worth reading. Read it thoughtfully and you will never be quite the same

I write only because I am concerned that some of the other reviews are going to scare away those with strong religious beliefs or at least a genuine interest in life after death. No one could be more deeply steeped in the study of paranormal phenomena than myself, yet this book ranks among the most profound and wise I have ever read. Even if you have little background in psychology or philosophy, you will recognize the deep truth of what Becker has to say. If you haven't read this book, you don't understand how the world works -- it is that important.

In each of his books, Ernest Becker presents his most current view of what human life (and our experience of it) 'really means'. His intellectual life was a constant quest for some theoretical framework that would explain human experience/behavior in a satisfactory way. Each book seems to say, "We'll, I didn't quite have it right before, but now I really know what it is all about." Reading his books in order is a grand journey of mind and spirit. I never felt that he fully succeeded in his quest, but each book - and this in particular for me because it was the first of his I read - forces the reader to come to terms with aspects of life that we usually avoid thinking about - either because they are too difficult or because we have supressed any awareness of them.

If the unexamined life is not worth living, this book, and all of Becker's output, should become tools to assist in the examination we need to make if life is to be meaninful.

A well-written book but really a prelude to DENIAL OF DEATH; better to start there and work backwards if one finds that book of significant interest.

After reading "The Birth and Death of Meaning" along with "The Denial of Death", Ernest Becker quickly became one of my personal heroes. Who else would have had the guts to write something so penetrating, so frightening, so threatening to the mechanisms we use every day to cope with life? Becker makes shockingly clear the fictitious nature of human meaning and the contrived nature of social game: if you've ever wondered why the mentally ill are so neglected as a minority and generally spurned even by so called "activists" for racial acceptance, etc, you won't wonder after reading this book. For all that Becker is gentle, not some arrogant nihilistic jerk. There is no typical existentialist self pity here, no "nausea", simply a tough recognition of the way things actually are and a few relative ideas as to how we should deal with them. This is what differentiates Becker from the postmodernists and others who delight in impotence: he is open to solution, to creative play and even religious answers (of an unconventional kind, of course.) His insight and intellect are so powerful as to be scary, and one wonders how such a man dealt with the trivialities of everyday life knowing that they are part of a gigantic charade of illusory meaning. He makes it clear that man is a social animal, and that we are built from the outside in rather than the other way around. His theory of the "urge toward cosmic heroism" fits perfectly into actual concrete everyday life, where anyone and everyone is eager to stand out in some way as cultural heroes. Like Nietzsche, perhaps even better, Becker illustrates the way in which we deceive ourselves and deliberately confuse the cultural game with underlying material reality. He offers four levels of possible solution, the first of which he warns can lead to narcissism and mandess, the second and third being religious in an abstract and metaphysical way. Becker is not, like so many sociologists, drunk on his own lucidity or on a power trip: he is telling us to relax, because the question of relevance is very much up in the air. Authenticity is his message. I would recommend this book as it is easily one of the most important philosophical awakenings that are on the bookshelf, but I would qualify that statement by also recommending it be taken in small doses.