Ernest Becker on Anxiety
Charleye Taze Wright (coachcap@pe.net)
Thu, 21 Mar 96 10:04:49 -0800
"Anxiety is the result of the perception of the truth of one's condition.
What does it mean to be a self-conscious animal? The idea is ludicrous,
if it is not monstrous. It means to know that one is food for worms.
This is the terror: to have emerged from nothing, to have a name,
consciousness of self, deep inner feelings, an excruciating inner
yearning for life and self-expression--and with all this yet to die. It
seems a hoax."
THE DENIAL OF DEATH, by Ernest Becker, The Free Press, New York, 1973,
page 87. (1974 Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction).