View source for Ernest Becker

{{Short description|American cultural anthropologist, author (1924–1974)}}
{{other uses}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Ernest Becker
| image              = Ernest Becker (1924-1974).jpg
| caption            = 
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|mf=yes|1924|9|27}}
| birth_place        = [[Springfield, Massachusetts]], U.S.
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|mf=yes|1974|3|6|1924|9|27}}
| death_place        = [[Burnaby, British Columbia]], Canada
| spouse             = Marie H Becker
| alma_mater         = [[Syracuse University]] ([[Bachelor of Science|BS]], [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]])  
| known_for          = Death-centric perspective on human psychology, eliciting the creation of [[Terror Management Theory]]
| notable_works      =   {{Plainlist|
*''The Birth and Death of Meaning'' (1971)
*''[[The Denial of Death]]'' (1973) 
*''Escape from Evil'' (1975)
}}
| awards             = [[Pulitzer Prize]] (1974)
| website            = [http://www.ernestbecker.org/ The Ernest Becker Foundation]
}}

'''Ernest Becker''' (September 27, 1924 – March 6, 1974) was an American [[cultural anthropology|cultural anthropologist]] and author of the 1973 [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning book, ''[[The Denial of Death]]''.

==Biography==
===Early life===
Ernest Becker was born in [[Springfield, Massachusetts]], to [[American Jews|Jewish immigrant]] parents. Serving in the [[Infantry Branch (United States)|infantry]] during [[World War II]], he would help liberate a [[Nazi concentration camps|Nazi concentration camp]]. After he completed his military service, Becker attended [[Syracuse University]] in New York. Upon graduation he joined the [[List of diplomatic missions of the United States|U.S. Embassy]] in [[Paris]] as an administrative officer.<ref name="EBF-Bio">{{cite web |title=Biography |url=http://ernestbecker.org/about-becker/biography/ |website=Ernest Becker Foundation |access-date=30 August 2020 |archive-date=9 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191109091143/http://ernestbecker.org/about-becker/biography/ |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine | url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,836748,00.html | title=Education: A Class Hires a Scholar | magazine=Time | date=10 March 1967 | access-date=11 June 2024 | archive-date=17 May 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230517095227/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,836748,00.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

In his early 30s, he returned to Syracuse University to pursue [[Graduate school|graduate studies]] in cultural anthropology, and would complete his [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] in 1960.<ref>{{cite magazine | url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,836748,00.html | title=Education: A Class Hires a Scholar | magazine=Time | date=10 March 1967 | access-date=11 June 2024 | archive-date=17 May 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230517095227/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,836748,00.html | url-status=live }}</ref> The first of his nine books, ''Zen: A Rational Critique'' (1961), was based on his doctoral dissertation.

===Professional career===
{{Anthropology}}<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Becker lecture 1960.png|alt=Becker giving a lecture during the 1960s.|left|thumb|Becker giving a lecture during the 1960s.]] -->
After graduating from [[Syracuse University]] in 1960, Becker began "the short 14-year period of his professional career"
as a professor and writer.<ref>Liechty, Daniel. ''Abstracts of the Complete Writings of Ernest Becker (1924-1974)''</ref> Initially, he taught anthropology in the Department of Psychiatry at the Upstate Medical College in Syracuse, New York, but was summarily fired, along with other non-tenured professors, for supporting tenured Professor [[Thomas Szasz]] in a dispute with the administration over academic freedom. After a year in Italy, Becker was hired back at Syracuse University, this time in the School of Education.

In 1965, Becker acquired a lecturer position at the [[University of California, Berkeley]] in the anthropology program. However, trouble again arose between Becker 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,<ref>{{cite magazine | url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,836748,00.html | title=Education: A Class Hires a Scholar | magazine=Time | date=10 March 1967 | access-date=11 June 2024 | archive-date=17 May 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230517095227/https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,836748,00.html | url-status=live }}</ref> but the petition did not succeed in retaining Becker. In 1967, he taught at San Francisco State's Department of Psychology until January 1969, when he resigned in protest against the administration's stringent policies against student demonstrations.

In 1969, Becker began a professorship at [[Simon Fraser University]] in [[Burnaby]], British Columbia, where he spent the final years of his academic life. During this time, Becker worked on the second edition of ''The Birth and Death of Meaning,'' to which he made extensive revisions. Next he wrote his 1974 [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning work ''[[The Denial of Death]]''. Finally, he worked on drafts of ''Escape from Evil'', but the latter was not completed at the time of his death.<ref name=":0">Becker, Ernest. [1975] 1985. ''Escape from Evil''. New York: Free Press. {{ISBN|9780029024508}}.</ref>

Becker's insistence on interdisciplinary work, along with the fact that students flocked to his lectures, which were marked by a high level of theatricality, did not endear him to many of his colleagues. 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."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Becker |first1=Ernst |title=The Birth and Death of Meaning: A Perspective in Psychiatry and Anthropology |date=1962 |publisher=[[The Free Press of Glencoe]] |location=New York |page=xiv |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wS1mvgAACAAJ}}</ref>

===Death===
In November 1972, Becker was diagnosed with [[Colorectal cancer|colon cancer]]. Sixteen months later, on 6 March 1974, he would die from disease at the age of 49 in Burnaby, British Columbia. Shortly before his death, he participated in a series of interviews with [[Sam Keen]] for ''[[Psychology Today]]''.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Keen|first=Sam|author-link=Sam Keen|date=1974|title=A conversation with Ernest Becker.|journal=Psychology Today|pages=71–80}}</ref>

==Ideas and concepts==
{{more citations needed section|date=November 2020}}
As related above, Becker did not attain tenure when he was fired from his first academic position at Upstate Medical College in Syracuse, NY. This was a result of a dispute the school had with "anti-psychiatrist" [[Thomas Szasz]], with whom Becker sided. This may be the reason Szasz's views are sometimes imputed to Becker. However, Becker's support of Szasz was limited to the issue of academic freedom: that is, whether or not Szasz (who had tenure) had the right to teach his views to psychiatry students.

During the final decade of his life, Becker used the ideas and concepts from many different writers and thinkers to write his books and teach his classes. To list just a few of these thinkers who helped formulate many of his theories, many point to how Becker draws on the work of [[Søren Kierkegaard]], [[Sigmund Freud]], [[Wilhelm Reich]], [[Norman O. Brown]], [[Erich Fromm]], [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]], and especially [[Otto Rank]].

===''The Birth and Death of Meaning'' ===
''The Birth and Death of Meaning'', published in 1962 and then extensively revised and republished in 1971,{{cn|date=September 2023}} was "Becker's first attempt to explain the human condition."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ernestbecker.org/about-becker/beckers-synthesis/|title=Becker's Synthesis – Ernest Becker Foundation|website=ernestbecker.org|access-date=2022-11-27|archive-date=2021-12-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211225153550/https://ernestbecker.org/about-becker/beckers-synthesis/|url-status=dead}}</ref> It takes its title from the concept of mankind progressing from simple-minded ape to a world of symbols and illusions, and then deconstructing those illusions through our own evolving intellect.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Becker|first=Ernest|date=1986-03-15|title=Escape From Evil|url=https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Escape-from-Evil/Ernest-Becker/9780029024508|access-date=2020-11-04|publisher=Free Press|isbn=9780029024508|archive-date=2021-01-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118013148/https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Escape-from-Evil/Ernest-Becker/9780029024508|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Becker|first=Ernest|title=The Birth and Death of Meaning: An interdisciplinary Perspective on the Problem of Man|publisher=The Free Press|year=1971|isbn=978-0029021903|location=New York, N.Y., United States of America}}</ref>

=== ''Revolution in Psychiatry'' ===
During this early period, Becker was formulating a "fully transactional" view of mental health that eventually formed the basis of his book, ''Revolution in Psychiatry'' (1964). Although Szasz is cited on a few key points in this book, Becker pursues a very distinct path.<ref>Liechty, Daniel. 1995. ''Transference & Transcendence: Ernest Becker's Contribution to Psychotherapy''. New Jersey: [[Jason Aronson]]. {{ISBN|1-56821-434-0}}.</ref>

=== ''The Denial of Death'' ===
In his 1973 book ''[[The Denial of Death]]'', Becker came to believe that an individual's 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.<ref name=":0" />

=== ''Escape From Evil'' ===
Becker eventually came to the position that psychological inquiry can only bring us to a distinct threshold beyond which belief systems must be invoked to satisfy the human psyche. The reach of such a perspective consequently encompasses [[science]] and [[religion]], and led to what [[Sam Keen]]<ref>beginning with the 1997 printing, subsequent editions include a new "''Foreword''" by Sam Keen, as clarified by Daniel Liechty, who edited {{cite book|last=|first=|title=The Ernest Becker Reader|location=Seattle, WA|publisher=University of Washington Press|year=2005|isbn=9780295984704|url=}}"Introduction"</ref> suggested was Becker's greatest achievement: the writing of ''Escape from Evil'',<ref>''Denial of Death'', Forward p. xiii</ref> left unfinished at the time of Becker's death, but posthumously published in 1975.<ref name=":0"/>

==Influence and legacy==

Two months after his death, Becker was [[Posthumous award|awarded]] a [[Pulitzer Prize]] for his book, ''The Denial of Death'' (1973), posthumously gaining him wider recognition. ''Escape From Evil'' (1975) was intended as a significant extension of the line of reasoning begun in ''The 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 the manuscript that existed as well as from notes on the unfinished chapter.

Since his death Becker's work, particularly as expressed in his later books, ''The Denial of Death'' and ''Escape from Evil'', has 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<ref>{{cite journal | pmid = 20097885 | doi=10.1177/1088868309352321 | volume=14 | issue=2 | title=Two decades of terror management theory: a meta-analysis of mortality salience research. | date=May 2010 | journal=Pers Soc Psychol Rev | pages=155–95| last1=Burke | first1=Brian L. | last2=Martens | first2=Andy | last3=Faucher | first3=Erik H. | s2cid=206682555 }}</ref> 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,<ref>{{Cite book | doi = 10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60016-7| chapter = Terror Management Theory of Self-Esteem and Cultural Worldviews: Empirical Assessments and Conceptual Refinements| title = Advances in Experimental Social Psychology | volume = 29| pages = 61| year = 1997| last1 = Greenberg | first1 = J. | last2 = Solomon | first2 = S. | last3 = Pyszczynski | first3 = T. | isbn = 9780120152292}}</ref> and religion.<ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1111/zygo.12127| title = Ernest Becker's Psychology of Religion Forty Years On: A View from Social Cognitive Psychology| journal = Zygon| volume = 49| issue = 4| pages = 875–889| year = 2014| last1 = Jong | first1 = J. | doi-access = free}}</ref>

After his death, the Ernest Becker Foundation was founded, focused on multidisciplinary inquiries into human behavior. The foundation would focus on reducing 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.<ref name="EBF-About">{{cite web |title=About Us |url=http://ernestbecker.org/about/ |website=Ernest Becker Foundation |access-date=30 August 2020 |archive-date=17 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200817015549/https://ernestbecker.org/about/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

''[[Flight from Death|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.<ref>{{cite web |title=Flight from Death: The Quest for Immortality (2005) |website=Transcendental Media |url=http://www.transcendentalmedia.com/films/flight-from-death/ |access-date=30 August 2020 |archive-date=17 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071017034229/http://www.flightfromdeath.com/crew.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Works==
=== Books ===
*1961. ''Zen: A Rational Critique''. New York: [[W. W. Norton & Company|W. W. Norton]].
*1962. ''The Birth and Death of Meaning: An Interdisciplinary Perspective in Psychiatry and Anthropology''. New York: [[Free Press (publisher)|The Free Press of Glencoe]].
*1964. ''Revolution in Psychiatry: The New Understanding of Man''. New York: Free Press.
*1967. ''Beyond Alienation: A Philosophy of Education for the Crisis of Democracy''. New York: [[George Braziller]].
*1968. ''The Structure of Evil: An Essay on the Unification of the Science of Man''. New York: George Braziller.
*1969. ''Angel in Armor: A Post-Freudian Perspective on the Nature of Man''. New York: George Braziller.
**This book is a collection of shorter essays, lectures, and reviews written between 1962 and 1968.
*1971. ''The Lost Science of Man''. New York: George Braziller.
*1971. ''The Birth and Death of Meaning: An Interdisciplinary Perspective on the Problem of Man'' (2nd ed.). New York: Free Press.
*1973. ''[[The Denial of Death]]''. New York: Free Press.
*1975. ''Escape from Evil''. New York: Free Press.

=== Essays ===
* 1974. "The spectrum of loneliness." ''[[Humanitas (publishing house)|Humanitas]]'' 10:237–46.
* 1974. "Toward the merger of animal and human studies." ''[[Philosophy of the Social Sciences (journal)|Philosophy of the Social Sciences]]'' 4:235–54.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
=== Books on Becker ===
* Evans, Ron. 1992. ''The Creative Myth and the Cosmic Hero: Text and Context in Ernest Becker's 'The Denial of Death'''. New York: [[Peter Lang (publisher)|Peter Lang]].
* Kagen, Michael Alan. 1994. ''Educating Heroes: The Implications of Ernest Becker's Depth Psychology of Education for Philosophy of Education''. Durango, CO: Hollowbrook Publishing.
* Kenel, Sally A. 1988. ''Mortal Gods: Ernest Becker and Fundamental Theology''. Lanham, MD: [[University Press of America]].
* Leifer, Ronald, 1976. "Becker, Ernest." In ''[[Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences|The Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences]]'' 18. New York: [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan/Free Press]].
* Liechty, Daniel, ed. 2005. ''The Ernest Becker Reader''. [[University of Washington Press]]. {{ISBN|0-295-98470-8}}
* — 2002. ''Death and Denial: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Legacy of Ernest Becker''. [[Praeger Paperback|Praeger]]. {{ISBN|0-275-97420-0}}.
* Martin, Stephen W. 1997. ''Decomposing Modernity: Ernest Becker's Images of Humanity at the End of an Age''. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
* Streeter, J. 2009. ''Human Nature, Human Evil, and Religion: Ernest Becker and Christian Theology''. Lanham, MD: University Press of America. {{ISBN|978-0-7618-4357-3}}.

=== Essays on Becker ===
* Bates, Harvey. 1977. "Letters from Ernest." ''[[The Christian Century|Christian Century]]'' 9:217–27.
* {{cite magazine |last1=Judis |first1=John B |author-link=John Judis|title=Death Grip |magazine=The New Republic |date=27 August 2007 |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/61936/death-grip |access-date=30 August 2020}}
* [[Sam Keen|Keen, Sam]]. 1974. "A Conversation with Ernest Becker." ''[[Psychology Today]]'' (April):71–80.
* Liechty, Daniel. 2004 [1998]. "[https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/0591-2385.1281998128 An Ernest Becker Bibliography]." [[Zygon (journal)|''Zygon'']] 33(1):87–90. {{doi|10.1111/0591-2385.1281998128}}.
* Martin, Jack. "[http://ernestbecker.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Becker-at-SFU-10.1177_0022167813479672.pdf Ernest Becker at Simon Fraser University (1969-1974)]" ''[[Journal of Humanistic Psychology]]'' 54(1):66–112. {{doi|10.1177/0022167813479672}}.

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://www.ernestbecker.org/ The Ernest Becker Foundation]
* [https://groups.google.com/group/ernest-becker-listserv-archive?hl=en&lnk=srg Ernest Becker Listserv Archive (Inactive Now July 2009)]
*[https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_6909763 Finding aid to the Ernest Becker papers at Columbia University]. [https://library.columbia.edu/libraries/rbml.html Rare Book & Manuscript Library]
* [http://www.deathreference.com/A-Bi/Becker-Ernest.html Encyclopedia of Death and Dying]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160202104707/http://classes.bus.oregonstate.edu/spring-11/ba465h/7-1/The%20Ernest%20Becker%20Reader,%20Introduction.doc "Introduction" to ''The Ernest Becker Reader'' (2005) by Daniel Liechty]
* [http://www.psych.ualberta.ca/~jschimel/p105_b4/intro-becker What Drives People To Behave The Way They Do? (an introductory guide about Ernest Becker's ideas)]
* [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jeff-Schimel/publication/8582423_Why_Do_People_Need_Self-Esteem_A_Theoretical_and_Empirical_Review/links/00b7d518938ce9278f000000/Why-Do-People-Need-Self-Esteem-A-Theoretical-and-Empirical-Review.pdf Why Do People Need Self-Esteem? A Theoretical and Empirical Review]

{{PulitzerPrize GeneralNon-Fiction 1962–1975}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Becker, Ernest}}
[[Category:1924 births]]
[[Category:1974 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American anthropologists]]
[[Category:20th-century American Jews]]
[[category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American psychologists]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Anti-psychiatry activists]]
[[Category:American cultural anthropologists]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in British Columbia]]
[[Category:Deaths from colorectal cancer in Canada]]
[[Category:Existential therapists]]
[[Category:Philosophers of pessimism]]
[[Category:Jewish American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Jewish American social scientists]]
[[Category:Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction winners]]