Darwin had a domineering father who pressured him into professions he didn’t have an interest in, such as the clergy. After spending most of his time hunting and collecting biological specimens, his father scolded him, and told him that he would be a disgrace to himself and his family. One day, he defied his father … Read more

There is an idea, that since every person is unique, has never existed before, and will never exist again, that they are made up on a unique configuration of atoms, that they will have a life calling that is unique to them. That is, there is something that you are attracted to, and the reason … Read more

Greene reminds us that before industrial society, humans derived a survivalist advantage in observing and in thinking to themselves. A human hunter could afford to observe the patterns of behavior of other animals, before creating the right hunting strategy. That is, the human being figured out how to make time work for him. His physical … Read more

If there is any science man really needs it is the one I teach, of how to occupy properly that place in creation that is assigned to man, and how to learn from it what one must be in order to be a man. – Immanuel Kant When we are young, we are puzzled by … Read more

This chapter is an attempt by Becker, who is not a psychologist, to distill what we have learned about mental illnesses in a simple and general way. So far, we have learned about the neurotic, who has failed to surround his anality with convincing illusion, he could not stand his own creatureliness. Adler taught us … Read more

Otto Rank’s insight into neuroticism is a key argument in Becker’s book. According to Rank, the neurotic is close to the truth, spiritually. Psychoanalysis tries to get people to see beyond the illusions of their senses, but with the neurotic, it is a different kind of problem. Neuroticism While the neurotic refuses to acknowledge the … Read more

What we learn from history is that man’s awareness of his animal nature has been absorbed by culture. The stories that culture has created has protected man from coming to terms with his nature, but this also depends on the epoch he lives in. In Christianity, man was given a clear story, be good and … Read more

Within man, there is a kind of innate slavishness, a need to worship something bigger than themselves. Many people later question how they could have been fooled by the magnetism or aura of someone great. How they could lose control of their critical faculties so easily? Freud called this phenomenon “transference” – it was when … Read more

Freud was an atheist but when it came to the nature of man, he was as religious as the theologian Kierkegaard. He thought that man’s creatureliness was his fundamental nature. Jung recalled an encounter with Freud where the latter told him, “My dear Jung, promise me never to abandon the sexual theory. That is the … Read more