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This book is a culmination of Robert Jay Lifton's studies on death. Prior works of his have explored different aspects of death and its effects on society and individuals. This book attempts to synthesize the historical, critical, philosophical, and psychoanalytic views of death into one coherent formulation.
In this reviewer's opinion it is the non-psychoanalytic aspects of the book that stand out. Lifton's thoughtful, insightful analysis of Mishima's suicide, of Japanese attitudes toward death, of the development of the atomic bomb and its effects upon both its creators and its victims left me with the feeling that that must, indeed, have been just what happened.
To Lifton life and death are naturally united, and he asserts that therefore “we must assume that death does not suddenly appear out of nowhere, but is ‘present’ for us in some way at all times.” Of course, he does not mean that death itself is present, but rather the image of death, in the form of “death equivalents” which fall into three classes, “image feelings of separation, disintegration, and stasis.” Each of these is counterbalanced by a corresponding life equivalent: connection, integrity and movement.
In his analysis of Freud's formulations, Lifton states that Freud's error lay in his dualistic view of life and death as opposing forces, although he perceives that Freud had a “unitary vision bootlegged into the death instinct.” In any case, whether these image feelings—which must occur together, in Lifton's view—spring from one source or, as Freud had it, from two, does not affect Lifton's main argument. That is, that it's when the connection between these is broken that problems arise.
The psychoanalytic discussions are less convincing. For example, in considering the case of Ellen West, Lifton essentially accepts Binswanger's exposition, which has long seemed to me to be an elaborate rationalization for allowing his patient to commit suicide while exonerating himself. Lifton quotes Binswanger: “Only