The Denial of Death - Ernest Becker

 

Ch 1. Introductions: Human Nature and the Heroic

We begin our discussion with a phenomenon called “organismic narcissism.”

“This narcissism is what keeps men marching into point-blank fire in wars: at heart one doesn’t feel that he will die, he only feels sorry for the man next to him. Freud’s explanation for this was that the unconscious does not know death or time: in man’s physiochemical, inner organic recesses he feels immortal.” (2)

Like any other living creature on this planet, our cells and tissue constantly adapt to its surrounding environment, with mechanisms that heighten their probability of survival. Homeostasis comes to mind. Found even in the body of single-celled organisms, such processes occur automatically in the absence of consciousness.

And when this organic behavior occupies the mind of the conscious creature, the desire for heroic pursuit arises. Just as how unconscious psychological processes, such as fixation and repression, affect conscious cognitive processes, the conscious desire for heroic recognition is driven by unconscious organismic narcissism. Becker goes as far as to describe it as the fundamental building block of conscious experience.

What does heroic recognition imply, in this sense? What does it grant us? For starters, it improves our self-image and reputation. Both these factors, however, cannot exist without the attention of others, suggesting that to be recognized as a hero expands the individual beyond the self-imposed definition of what it means to be oneself. I am reminded of the saying that when we die, we live on in the mind of others. It is only when the final memory of us is extinguished that we return to nothingness. Recognition imbues not the individual, but the idea of the individual with meaning and preserves its existence through the mind of others, thereby granting it metaphysical immortality—a satisfying outcome for the narcissistic organism.

“[Man’s] sense of self-worth is constituted symbolical his cherished narcissism feeds on symbols, on an abstract idea of his own worth, an idea composed of sounds, words, and images, in the air, in the mind, on paper. And this means that man’s natural yearning for organismic activity, the pleasures of incorporation and expansion, can be fed limitlessly in the domain of symbols and so into immortality. The single organism can expand into dimensions of worlds and times without moving a physical limb; it can take eternity into itself even as it gaspingly dies.” (3)

As explained by the quote above, man is special in his ability to feed organismic narcissism without the need to focalize around the continuation of our physical well-being.

“In man, physiochemical identity and the sense of power and activity have become conscious.” (3)

“A mythical hero-system in which people serve in order to earn a feeling of primary value, of cosmic specialness, of ultimate usefulness to creation, of unshakable meaning.” (5)

At this point, we must decide whether we agree on the prevalence of the urge to heroics. Let us look around and within.

Human beings are noticeably driven by abstract value. In modern society, we chase wealth, power, reputation, and influence. Some take it a step further by joining a religion, an attempt to further imbue meaning into their lives. In many cases, we even choose to sacrifice our health and fitness in pursuit of these ideals.

I am also a willing participant in the race. I desire recognition and success. I want to be special. I don’t want to be a nobody. I may be content with a praised and famous death, even if I had no children to leave behind. From a physical, organismic standpoint, there is no rationale for these cognitions.

Social critics may blame the presence of these sentiments on the government for incentivizing constant, competitive struggle. They would argue that if everyone was guaranteed a quality standard of living, we will harbor different motivations. They are right to a degree. With enough change, I believe we as a species may be less inclined to chase social constructs of abstract value. It would not, however, eradicate organismic narcissism, and by their relationship, the urge to heroics as well.  

“The heart of the creature: the desire to stand out, to be the one in creation.” (3)

Where organismic narcissism lies at the heart of all creatures, the urge to heroics lies at the heart of all conscious creatures. As long as we remain conscious, we will feel its call. The terror of conscious existence, knowing that “I” have a beginning and resultantly, an end, compels us to matter and expand as much as we can in the short time we find ourselves at the wheel.  

Then again, perhaps I am more easily convinced because I have readily acknowledged my urge to heroics. What about those who do not subscribe to these beliefs? Although this question may be best answered in later chapters, I can say with certainty that they too are imbuing meaning into their lives through their respective decisions and actions. Behavior that convinces the self to feel special and important in some way or form (I acknowledge that this is difficult to argue against. Later chapters will touch it).

“To become conscious of what one is doing to earn his feeling of heroism is the main self-analytical problem of life. Everything painful and sobering in what psychoanalytic genius and religious genius have discovered about man revolves around the terror of admitting what one is doing to earn his self-esteem.” (6)

The question, then becomes, how aware are we individually, of our personal urge for heroic pursuit?

“The question that becomes then the most important one that man can put to himself is simply this: how conscious is he of what he is doing to earn his feeling of heroism? I suggested that if everyone honestly admitted his urge to be a hero it would be a devastating release of truth. It would make men demand that culture give them their due— a primary sense of human value as unique contributors to cosmic life. How would our modern societies contrive to satisfy such an honesty demand, without being shaken to their foundations?” (5)

Heroism is a tricky and seemingly impossible problem to solve. We want to matter, yet our ability to be special is crippled by our knowledge that we ultimately lack universal significance. A real conundrum. The rest of The Denial of Death discusses the various mental faculties we employ to act upon our urge to heroics, and their respective behavioral and psychological consequences.

As shown, the purpose of this chapter is not to provide an answer, but to convince the reader that our heroic pursuit is most natural and even central to the experiencing of being. As Becker states, this makes it a very big elephant in the room.

“What I have tried to do in this brief introduction is to suggest that the problem of heroics is the central one of human life, that it goes deeper into human nature than anything else because it is based on organismic narcissism and on the child’s need for self-esteem as the condition for his life… If we accept these suggestions, then we must admit that we are dealing with the universal human problem; and we must be prepared to probe into it as honestly as possible, to be as shocked by the self-revelation of man as the best thought will allow.” (7-8)

And with your acceptance, we move on to chapter two.

The remainder of Ch. 1 annotations: 

“Sibling rivalry is a critical problem that reflects the basic human condition: it is not that children are vicious, selfish, or domineering. It is that they so openly express man’s tragic destiny: he must desperately justify himself as an object of primary value in the universe; he must stand out, be a hero, make the biggest possible contribution to world life, show that he counts more than anything or anyone else.” (4)

“The urge to heroism is natural, and to admit it honest. For everyone to admit it would probably release such pent-up force as to be devastating to societies as they now are.” (4)

“The great perplexity of our time, the churning of our age, is that the youth have sensed— for better or for worse— a great social-historical truth: that just as there are useless self-sacrifices in unjust wars, so too is there an ignoble heroics of whole societies: it can be the viciously destructive heroics of Hitler’s Germany or the plain debasing and silly heroics of the acquisition and display of consumer goods, the piling up of money and privileges that now characterizes whole ways of life, capitalist and Soviet.” (7)