ernest becker
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Ernest Becker
Born September 27, 1924
Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died March 6, 1974 (aged 49)
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Residence Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Ethnicity Jewish
Alma mater Syracuse University
Known for Terror management theory
Notable workThe Denial of Death
Spouse(s) Marie Becker-Pos
Awards Pulitzer Prize (1974)
Website The Ernest Becker Foundation (htt
p://www.ernestbecker.org/)
Ernest BeckerFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ernest Becker(September 27, 1924 March 6, 1974) was a Jewish-American cultural anthropologist
and writer. He is noted for his 1974 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Denial of Death.
Contents
1 Early life2 Academic career3 Beliefs4 Influence5 Death6 Works7 References
8 Sources9 External links
Early life
Becker was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, to Jewish immigrant parents. After completing military service, in which he served in the infantry and
helped to liberate a Nazi concentration camp, he attendedSyracuse University in New York. Upon graduation he joined the US Embassy in Paris as an
administrative officer. In his early 30s, he returned to Syracuse University to pursue graduate studies in cultural anthropology. He completed his Ph.D. in
1960. The first of his nine books,Zen: A Rational Critique(1961) was based on his doctoral dissertation. After Syracuse, he became a professor atSimon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.
Academic career
http://www.ernestbecker.org/http://www.ernestbecker.org/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Denial_of_Deathhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terror_management_theoryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulitzer_Prizehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Denial_of_Deathhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnabyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Fraser_Universityhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syracuse_Universityhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield,_Massachusettshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Denial_of_Deathhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulitzer_Prizehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_anthropologyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish-Americanhttp://www.ernestbecker.org/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulitzer_Prizehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Denial_of_Deathhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terror_management_theoryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syracuse_Universityhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnabyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield,_Massachusetts -
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After graduating from Syracuse University in 1960, Becker began his career as a teaching professor and writer. Becker taught at Syracuse University for
a few years before eventually being fired in 1963 for siding with his mentor Thomas Szasz in the psychotherapy disputes. In 1965, Becker acquired a
position at the University of California, Berkeley in the anthropology program. However, trouble again arose between him and the administration,
leading to his departure from the university. At the time, thousands of students petitioned to keep Becker at the school and offered to pay his salary, but
the petition did not succeed in retaining Becker. In 1967, he taught at San Francisco States Department of Psychology until January 1969 when he
resigned in protest against the administrations stringent policies against the student demonstrations.
In 1969, Becker began a professorship at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, where he would spend the remaining years of his academic
life. During the next five years, he wrote his 1974 Pulitzer Prizewinning work, The Denial of Death. Additionally, he worked on the second edition to
The Birth and Death of Meaning,and wroteEscape from Evil. In November 1972, Ernest Becker was diagnosed with cancer.
Becker was an academic outcast in the last decade of his life. Referring to his insistence on the importance symbolism plays in the human animal, he
wrote "I have tried to correct... bias by showing how deep theatrical "superficialities" really go". [1]It was only with the award of the Pulitzer Prize in
1974 (two months after his death from cancer at the age of 49) for his 1973 book, The Denial of Death, that he gained wider recognition.Escape From
Evil(1975) was intended as a significant extension of the line of reasoning begun in Denial of Death, developing the social and cultural implications of
the concepts explored in the earlier book. Although the manuscript's second half was left unfinished at the time of his death, it was completed from what
manuscript existed as well as from notes on the unfinished chapter.
Beliefs
Becker was fired from his first academic position at Upstate Medical College in Syracuse, NY before attaining tenure, as a result of a dispute the school
had with "anti-psychiatrist" Thomas Szasz. For this reason, Szasz's views are sometimes imputed to Becker. However, Becker's support of Szasz was
limited to the issue of academic freedom - whether or not Szasz (who had tenure) had the right to teach his views to psychiatry students. During this
early period Becker was formulating a "fully transactional" view of mental health that eventually formed the basis for his book, "Revolution in
Psychiatry" (1964). Although Szasz is cited on a few key points in this book, Becker pursues a very distinct path. [2]
Becker eventually came to the position that psychological inquiry can only bring us to a distinct threshold, beyond which belief systems must be invokedto satisfy the human psyche. The reach of such a perspective consequently encompasses science and religion, even to what Sam Keen suggests is
Becker's greatest achievement, the creation of the "Escape from Evil".[3]In formulating his theories Becker drew on the work of Sren Kierkegaard,
Sigmund Freud, Wilhelm Reich, Norman O. Brown, Erich Fromm, Hegel, and especially Otto Rank. Becker came to believe that individual character is
essentially formed around the process of denying one's own mortality, that this denial is a necessary component of functioning in the world, and that this
character-armor masks and obscures genuine self-knowledge. Much of the evil in the world, he believed, was a consequence of this need to deny death.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Rankhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hegelhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Frommhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_O._Brownhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reichhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freudhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%B8ren_Kierkegaardhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Keenhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sciencehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulitzer_Prizehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Fraser_Universityhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,_Berkeleyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychotherapyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Szasz -
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Becker also wrote The Birth and Death of Meaning, which gets its title from the concept of humankind moving away from the simple-minded ape into a
world of symbols and illusions, and then deconstructing those illusions through our own evolving intellect.
Influence
Becker's work, particularly as expressed in his later books, The Denial of DeathandEscape from Evilhave had a significant impact on social
psychology and the psychology of religion. Terror Management Theory, an important research programme in social psychology that has spawned over
200 published studies[4]has turned Becker's views on the cultural influence of death anxiety into a scientific theory that helps to explain such diverse
human phenomena as self-esteem, prejudice,[5]and religion.[6]
Death
Becker died on March 6, 1974, from colon cancer in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. After his death, the Ernest Becker Foundation was founded [7]
devoted to multidisciplinary inquiries into human behavior, with a particular focus on contributing to the reduction of violence in human society, using
Becker's basic ideas to support research and application at the interfaces of science, the humanities, social action and religion. Flight From Death(2003)
is a documentary film directed by Patrick Shen, based on Becker's work, and partially funded by the Ernest Becker Foundation.[8]
Works
Zen: A Rational Critique. New York: W.W. Norton, 1961.The Birth and Death of Meaning: A Perspective in Psychiatry and Anthropology. New York: Free Press of Glencoe, 1962.
Revolution in Psychiatry: The New Understanding of Man. New York: Free Press, 1964.Beyond Alienation: A Philosophy of Education for the Crisis of Democracy. New York: George Braziller, 1967.The Structure of Evil: An Essay on the Unification of the Science of Man. New York: George Braziller, 1968.
Angel in Armor: A Post-Freudian Perspective on the Nature of Man. New York: George Braziller, 1969.
The Lost Science of Man. New York: George Brazillier, 1971.The Birth and Death of Meaning: An Interdisciplinary Perspective on the Problem of Man . Second Edition. New York: Free Press, 1971.The Denial of Death. New York: Free Press, 1973.
Escape from Evil. New York: Free Press, 1975.
References
1. p.xiv. Becker, Ernest (1962) The Birth and Death of Meaning: A Perspective in Psychiatry and Anthropology . New York: The Free Press of Glencoe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Denial_of_Deathhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Shenhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_filmhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_from_deathhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terror_Management_Theory -
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Wikiquote has quotations
related to:Ernest Becker
2. cf. D. Liechty (1995) Transference and Transcendence
3. https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=escape+of+evil+earnest+becker
4. "Two decades of terror management theory: a meta-analysis of mortality salience research.". Pers Soc Psychol Rev14 (2): 15595. May 2010.
doi:10.1177/1088868309352321. PMID 20097885.
5. Greenberg, J. Solomon, S. Pyszczynski, T. (1997). "Terror Management Theory of Self-Esteem and Cultural Worldviews: Empirical Assessments and Conceptual
Refinements". Advances in Experimental Social Psychology29. p. 61. doi:10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60016-7. ISBN 9780120152292.
6. Jong, J. (2014). "Ernest Becker's Psychology of Religion Forty Years On: A View from Social Cognitive Psychology".Zygon49 (4): 875. doi:10.1111/zygo.12127.
7. Ernest Becker Foundation website http://www.ernestbecker.org
8. Film's official website http://www.flightfromdeath.com
Sources
Liechty D (ed.) (2005) The Ernest Becker Reader. University of Washington Press. ISBN 0-295-98470-8Liechty D (ed.) (2002)Death and Denial: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Legacy of Ernest Becker. Praeger. ISBN 0-275-97420-0Liechty D (1995) Transference & Transcendence: Ernest Becker's Contribution to Psychotherapy. Aronson. ISBN 1-56821-434-0Streeter J (2009)Human Nature, Human Evil, and Religion: Ernest Becker and Christian Theology. University Press of America. ISBN 978-0-7618-4357-3
External links
The Ernest Becker Foundation (http://www.ernestbecker.org/)Ernest Becker Listserv Archive (Inactive Now July 2009) (http://groups.google.com/group/ernest-becker-listserv-archive?hl=en&lnk=srg)Encyclopedia of Death and Dying (http://www.deathreference.com/A-Bi/Becker-Ernest.html)"Introduction" to The Ernest Becker Reader(2005) by Daniel Liechty (http://classes.bus.oregonstate.edu/spring-11/ba465h/7-1/The%20Ernest%20Becker%20Reader,%20Introduction.doc)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ernest_Becker&oldid=723882191"
Categories: 1924 births 1974 deaths Jewish American social scientists American anthropologists Cultural anthropologists
American psychologists Jewish American writers Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction winners Existential therapists Anti-psychiatry
Deaths from colorectal cancer 20th-century American writers
This page was last modified on 5 June 2016, at 21:26.
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