The Denial of Death

Becker now discusses mental illness. First, he discusses depression. He argues that it “develops in people who are afraid of life” and are unwilling “to give oneself up to the risks and dangers of the world” (210). Depression is also driven by fear of being alone and without power, and by the failure to perform heroism. In one case, menopause in women causes depression because it is a reminder of their animal nature and of their aging. The schizophrenic is someone without any illusions about the human condition. Like with depression, schizophrenia involves a person lacking the “resources” (221) to be a hero. Becker explains what he terms sexual “perversions,” like masochism and homosexuality, as “the existential anxiety of life and death finding its focus on the animal body” (224).

At the center of mental illness, according to Becker, is what he calls the “hermaphroditic image.” In psychological theory, the hermaphroditic image is the sense people have of their own genitalia and sexual difference. When children become aware of their mother’s nakedness, they become aware of their own animal bodies (225). Becker disagrees with Freud’s theory that this awareness causes hate of the father or sexual desire but instead argues that it shows the child that even their mothers are only bodies. It is from the resulting confusion, that humans are “an animal who doesn’t want to be one” (227), that lifelong anxieties and phobias emerge.

While this affects everyone, traumas and poor relationships with one’s parents worsen these problems. In addition, humans want to assert themselves as individuals despite being part of a human species, at the same time they are trying to cope with “two distinct kinds of experience—physical and mental, or bodily and symbolic” (231). The development of sexual “perversions” and fetishes is one way people try to rebel and assert their individuality against their animal selves.

Sexual fetishes let people deny their genitals and other aspects of their bodies in sexuality. They serve as a “magical charm” (235) that gives people a sense of individual fulfillment and a sense of transcendence, much like secret rituals and secret organizations (237). In particular, the people Becker calls transvestites are “staging [...] the drama of transcendence” (238) by taking control of the “separation into sexes” (239). Becker describes fetishes as “private religions” that are “attempts to heroically transcend the human condition and to achieve some kind of satisfaction in that condition” (243-244). Becker argues for the “naturalness of these perversions” (244). He claims that sadism, masochism, and rape represent attempts to take control in a modern world where people feel increasingly powerless (245).

Becker argues that mental illness is failed heroics and the “failures of death-transcendence” (248). Becker goes so far as arguing that “mental illness is thus a matter of weakness and stupidity,” revealing “ignorance about how one is going about satisfying” the need to submit to one’s culture and assert one’s individuality (251). Becker concludes that solving these dilemmas through sexual perversions is no less valid an effort to achieve heroism than religion.