The Denial File

Michael Tymn | June 13, 2023

In his 1973 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Denial of Death, anthropologist Ernest Becker states that “religion solves the problem of death, which no living individuals can solve, no matter how they would support us….it gives hope…

Audrey Cardany | May 30, 2023

The human construction of culture is central to mitigating death anxiety by providing pathways to immortality and creating criteria for determining meaning in life as well as validating personal worth in society. The Arts are essential elements of culture…

Kevin Holbeche | April 27, 2023

English Prime. It conjugates the English language without the verb “to be” – for example, without the words “is”, “am”, “are”, “was”, and “were”. Some believe that these words possess certain dogmatic and infallible aspects, where only uncertainty and the unknowable should truly hold sway.

Geertje Else Wiersma and Rev. Charles C. Navle | January 13, 2023

Our minds, our dreaming nature, can put us anywhere, even journeys to the stars themselves and to times past and times to come. That we …

Phoebe Agnew-Bass | June 18, 2022

Terror management theory (TMT; Pyszczynski et al., 2015), inspired by the works of Ernest Becker, proposes that humans’ ever-present awareness that death is inevitable has …

Gabrielle Nieuwoudt | May 11, 2022

Terror Management Theory (TMT), inspired by the works of Ernest Becker, asserts that humans, unlike other animals, have the ability to recognize that one day …

Sara Savar | May 11, 2022

The basic incentive behind gambling is to win money (Binde, 2013). This appeal of monetary gain might lead to the development of a gambling addiction. …

Harshi Dhingra | November 19, 2021

Ernest Becker’s teachings have been adapted into a number of different courses. Becker spent a lot of his life trying to answer one very simple …

Jackson Foran | August 14, 2021

The notion of violent nihilism has become increasingly relevant in the past few decades due to the prevalence of seemingly senseless violence. For instance, many …

Michael Coffey | July 24, 2021

“Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages” -Geoffrey Chaucer Pilgrimages attract people who have something to work out. The walk is a ritual that offers …

Janice Tufte | July 23, 2021

Practicing Islam and other religions today can prove to be challenging for a number of reasons. One is the growing number of divisive socio-political climates, …

Tau Nell | March 12, 2021

Terror Management Theory (TMT), inspired by the works of Ernest Becker, posits that human beings, due to their unique awareness of their own mortality, make …

Alanah Maskell | March 11, 2021

The death penalty is legal in thirty states in America and activists have long called for its abolishment. These people are given the worst punishment …

Nikita Rattu | March 11, 2021

Globally, there have been over 100 million reported cases and over 2 million deaths attributed to COVID-19,1 classifying the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic.2 One …

Kirill Khrestinin | March 11, 2021

Death is unavoidable. Sooner or later people we know will drop out of existence, finding their so often premature demise. Everything around you will be …

Amanda Ferrer Knight | January 22, 2021

What drives someone to kill, and specifically become a serial killer, has fascinated society. Serial killers are often presented in the media as “insane.” However, …

Peter A. Pompa | October 27, 2020

I’ve been applying the insights and ideas from Ernest Becker’s work since I first came across The Denial of Death sometime in my early 20s …

Bruce Sheiman | April 29, 2020

In this essay I want to make a broader case for Ernest Becker’s thinking than has hitherto been presented, going beyond the narrow focus on …

Sam Fairlamb | April 28, 2020

How should we treat the legacies of those who achieve greatness but then go on to commit acts such as murder, sexual assault, or other types of …

Gábor Vona | October 26, 2019

At 20, I began my political career and was positioned to the right of Viktor Orbán, then prime minister of my country, Hungary. By 40, …

Sean Hall | October 26, 2019

An aurous glimmer pulled a pilgrim west For to purloin a peck of buried Ra He’ll build a lucent palace for the blessed And be acquitted of the …

Dr. Brian Robinson | August 19, 2019

We’ve had a problem these last almost four years, politically, in Britain. For a multiplicity of reasons, a diverse group of people have united in …

Talibah Chiku | July 16, 2019

Many years have passed since I was exposed to and read Becker’s Denial of Death. Unfortunately in this now, I fail to recall those moments …

Kevin Quiles | July 16, 2019

Tell anyone that the average life expectancy in the US is around 29,200 days and you’ll get a reaction. The reason is simple: the number, …

Beth Schultz | April 18, 2019

“The real world is simply too terrible to admit. It tells man that he is a small trembling animal who will someday decay and die. …

Carolina James | February 11, 2019

This is the terror: to have emerged from nothing, to have a name, consciousness of self, deep inner feelings, an excruciating inner yearning for life …

Michael Mountain & Lori Marino | December 6, 2016

Mortality is connected to the natural, animal side of [human] existence; and so man reaches beyond and away from that side. So much so that he tries to deny it completely.

Tom Cathcart | October 29, 2016

Richard Beck is a professor of psychology at Abilene Christian University, a school affiliated with the Christian Churches.

Bo Bestvina | October 12, 2016

Terror Management Theory (TMT) states humans have an unconscious existential anxiety arising from awareness of morality. In an attempt to buffer ourselves from this anxiety …

Kirby Farrell | June 28, 2016

With time to spare before a flight out of Pisa, I recently looked in on the Piazza dei Miracoli, where the famous tower of Pisa …