RE313 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Neurosis, Caravaggio, Ernest Becker
Document Summary
Death on a pale horse by john hamilton mortimer, 1775 courtesy of artstor. This image is used to introduce this lesson because it illustrates, what becker calls, the terror of death. In the last two lessons we looked at the current science of bereavement and focused on the various ways humans tend to respond to the death of a loved one. In this lesson we look at how we respond to the knowledge, whether conscious or unconscious, of our own eventual death. To do this, we will immerse ourselves in this lesson and the next, in the ideas of. Click here to see a photo of becker. Becker thought that awareness of our death produces in us tremendous fear and anxiety. He believed that the terror of death is a universal fear. He also thought that every person responds to this fear and anxiety by denying their mortality.
