The problem that Ernest Becker addresses in this book is one that theologians such as Paul Tillich, and philosophers like Albert Camus, have sought to confront in their work. It is the problem of finitude, or mortality, and the essential absurdity of human existence in the face of what Becker calls:

Creation . . . a nightmare spectacular taking place on a planet that has been soaked for hundreds of millions of years in the blood of all its creatures.

Becker approaches the issue primarily through psychology, although also drawing upon the work of theologians and others. It