Ernest Becker facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ernest Becker
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| Born | September 27, 1924 |
| Died | March 6, 1974 (aged 49) Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
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| Alma mater | Syracuse University |
| Known for | Eliciting the creation of Terror Management Theory |
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Notable work
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The Denial of Death, Escape from Evil and The Birth and Death of Meaning |
| Spouse(s) | Marie Becker-Pos |
| Awards | Pulitzer Prize (1974) |
Ernest Becker (born September 27, 1924 – died March 6, 1974) was an American cultural anthropologist. He was also a famous author. His most well-known book, The Denial of Death, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1974.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Ernest Becker was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. His parents were Jewish immigrants. During World War II, he served in the army's infantry. He helped free people from a Nazi concentration camp.
After the war, Becker went to Syracuse University in New York. When he graduated, he worked for the U.S. Embassy in Paris. He was an administrative officer there.
In his early 30s, he went back to Syracuse University. He studied cultural anthropology and earned his PhD in 1960. His first book, Zen: A Rational Critique (1961), was based on his PhD studies.
Career as a Professor and Writer
After finishing his PhD in 1960, Becker started teaching and writing. He taught anthropology at Upstate Medical College in Syracuse, New York. He later left this job due to disagreements with the administration.
After spending a year in Italy, Becker returned to Syracuse University. He then taught at the University of California, Berkeley in 1965. Students there really liked his classes. Thousands of students even signed a petition to keep him at the school. However, he eventually left Berkeley too.
In 1967, he taught at San Francisco State University. He resigned in 1969 because he disagreed with the university's strict rules about student protests.
In 1969, Becker became a professor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. He stayed there for the rest of his academic life. During these five years, he wrote his famous book, The Denial of Death. He also worked on a new edition of The Birth and Death of Meaning and wrote Escape from Evil.
Becker believed in combining different subjects in his work. Students loved his lectures because they were very engaging.
Becker's Big Ideas
Ernest Becker's ideas often explored deep questions about human life. He believed that our minds try to understand the world in special ways.
Revolution in Psychiatry
In his early career, Becker developed ideas about mental health. He wrote about these in his book, Revolution in Psychiatry (1964). In this book, he explored new ways of understanding how people think and feel.
Escape From Evil
Becker believed that psychology could only explain so much about people. He thought that our beliefs were very important for our minds. His ideas covered both science and religion. Many people consider Escape from Evil to be one of his greatest achievements.
Becker's theories were influenced by many thinkers. These included Søren Kierkegaard, Sigmund Freud, and Otto Rank.
Becker came to believe that people's personalities are shaped by trying to avoid thinking about their own death. He thought this "denial" helps us function in the world. But he also believed it could hide our true selves. He felt that much of the bad things in the world came from this need to deny death.
The Birth and Death of Meaning
Becker also wrote The Birth and Death of Meaning. This book talks about how humans developed from simple creatures. It describes how we created a world of symbols and ideas. Then, as we became smarter, we started to question those ideas.
The Denial of Death
In his 1974 book The Denial of Death, Becker wrote about how important healthy narcissism (a healthy sense of self-worth) is. He said that having a good sense of self-worth is key to feeling good about yourself.
This book won the Pulitzer Prize after his death.
Later Life and Legacy
In November 1972, Ernest Becker was diagnosed with colon cancer. He passed away two years later, on March 6, 1974. He was 49 years old. Before he died, he gave several interviews for Psychology Today magazine.
A movie called Flight From Death (2003) was made based on Becker's work. It was directed by Patrick Shen.
After his death, the Ernest Becker Foundation was created. This foundation studies human behavior from many different angles. It aims to reduce violence in society. It uses Becker's ideas to support research in science, humanities, and social action.
Two months after he died, Becker was given the Pulitzer Prize for The Denial of Death. This award helped his work become more widely known. His book Escape From Evil (1975) was meant to expand on the ideas from The Denial of Death. It explored how these ideas affected society and culture. Even though he didn't finish the second half of the book, it was completed using his notes.
Influence
Becker's work, especially The Denial of Death and Escape from Evil, has greatly influenced social psychology. It also affected the psychology of religion.
One important research area called Terror management theory was inspired by Becker's ideas. This theory studies how our fear of death affects our behavior. It helps explain things like self-esteem, prejudice, and religion. Over 200 studies have been published based on this theory.
Works
Books
- 1961. Zen: A Rational Critique. New York: W. W. Norton.
- 1962. The Birth and Death of Meaning: An Interdisciplinary Perspective in Psychiatry and Anthropology (1st ed.). New York: 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 10:237–46.
- 1974. “Toward the merger of animal and human studies.” Philosophy of the Social Sciences 4:235–54.
See also
In Spanish: Ernest Becker para niños
