The purpose of this research is to compare the views of two theorists Ernest Becker and Sigmund Freud on the psychological construct of the death instinct. The plan of the research will be to set forth the philosophical and psychological background from which analyses of the topic as a construct emerged, and then to discuss the elements that describe differences between the views of Freud and Becker. As appropriate, reference will be made to other psychological constructs that may from time to time intersect with the construct of the death instinct.
How the psychology of death is perceived by psychological practitioners and philosophers is important to understanding the meaning of death as well as helping the community at large to deal with it. But the community at large is the culture, individuals are part of the culture, and certain cultural attitudes frame the concept and analysis of the death instinct. The attitudes of various religious groups toward death appear to both reflect and determine attitudes of persons within the dominant culture. In primitive societies, where religion and culture were for all practical purposes the same thing, death was tied to life in a cyclical way. That is, death would lead to rebirth or resurrection in one form or another. Frazer's analysis of primitive culture describes rituals connected with the agricultural and seasonal cycles that in some measure sought to discover meaning in the cycles of human life as well. In effect, death is a part of joy and life. One European folk festival, which is designed to ward off ill luck, involves what Frazer refers to as "Burying the Carnival."
On the evening of Shrove Tuesday, the Esthonians make a
straw figure called a metsik or "wood spirit;" one year it
is dressed with a man's coat and hat, next year with a hood
and a petticoat. This figure is stuck on a long pole,
carried across the boundary of the vi...