Durkheim's View On Suicide

Both Suicide and Modernity and The Cultural Logic of Collective Representations by Emile Durkheim have a focus around people and their relationship with religion and their way of thinking about the world around them. In Suicide and Modernity, Durkheim talks about people and their goals and how goals and desires effect them, while The Cultural Logic of Collective Representations talks about where different ideas and desires originate from. Durkheim starts off Suicide and Modernity by talking about humans and the fact that no one can be happy without having their desires match what their real means are. If a person’s desires are greater than what they are actually able to have and achieve, no one is going to be happy. Humans are different from

Most people would assume that with the higher rates of suicide that more people would understand suicide and ways to help prevent it and yet the numbers just keep rising. Symbolic Interactionism can be used to describe how our society views suicide and why suicide is an all too common escape from life. Some of the prominent causes of suicide are pain, loneliness, rejection, abuse, deep sadness, guilt, depression, helplessness and most of all hopelessness. Although most of the time our society as a collective does not see that a person is suffering from these problems until it is too late. When people take their own lives, family members and peers see this act as being selfish. It’s often hard for people who do not suffer from a mental illness to understand why people who do have them act the way they do. A majority of people blow off mental illnesses because they think that someone might just be acting a certain way for attention or don’t actually see the real problem. In some cultures suicide can be a rewarding sacrifice. For example, when people make a heroic sacrifice for the benefit of their community. In the United States, we don’t necessarily understand how sacrificing a person can be beneficial to the society, but to the other cultures it’s something that can be highly

Emile Durkheim was one of the most influential people to write about suicide and its causes. Suicide had previously been thought to be a moral and psychological problem whereas Durkheim related suicide to sociological problems in modern society. He believed and worked to prove that suicide was not related to individualism but linked to the effects of the external influences of modern society. External social influences upon an individual covered the broad and varied aspects such as culture, religion and family. Durkheim believed that suicide was directly related to the level of social integration and/or regulation of a person in society. He developed groups into which an individual was categorised according to their level of integration

Feelings of isolation have been linked to higher suicide rates. Durkheim’s study on suicide during the industrial revolution supports this theory as he states that, “people were increasingly disconnected from their communities and that this social upheaval had a greater effect on suicide rates than other factors like wealth” (Winner & Collishaw, 2011). Interestingly enough, despite the increase of media attention on suicide, no studies have been published that explain why suicide rates vary among different groups. However, various factors are involved in the decision to commit suicide. As a result, suicide rates vary according to race, gender and age.

The interpretivist approach directly contrasts the positivist one and seeks to focus on the meanings of suicide for those involved. Douglas criticises Durkheim's use of official statistics as they are not accurate and recommends qualitative studies to discover the real rate of suicide. The statistics are a result of a coroners label and thus it is not trustworthy in his view. This suggested that cases are decided on "the basis of probability”. Douglas further seeks to find out the meaning of the suicide

“Suicide is applied to all cases of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive or negative act of the victim himself, which he knows will produce this result” (Durkheim 34). Suicide is a phenomenon that has plagued our world since the beginning of time. It currently accounts for the second leading cause of death in people ages ten to twenty-four years old (Garni Powerpoint). This means of ending your own life is something we can prevent as a society. If we can eliminate societal pressures and stereotypes we can all be treated equally. All suicides during a certain time period are grouped together, when in all reality we should be treating each situation as it’s own. Durkheim states “...with it’s own unity, individuality, and consequently its own nature- a nature, furthermore, dominantly social”.

One reason people commit suicide is that they are depressed. Depression is the feeling of severe dejection. It causes severe symptoms that affect how you feel, think, and handle activities, such as sleeping, eating, and working. (NH) Many who are considering suicide suffer from depression (Highbeam). For example a six year old girl committed suicide by stepping in front of a train. She was depressed because her mom had died from an illness. She couldn’t face a life without her.

Durkheim was a functionalist, and theorised that a holistic social narrative could be identified which would explain individual behaviour. He argued that, whilst society was made up of its members, it was greater than the sum of its parts, and was an external pressure that determined the behaviour of the individuals within it. At that time, suicide rates in Europe were rising, and so the causes of suicide were on the agenda. Since suicide is seen as an intrinsically personal and individual action, establishing it as having societal causes would be a strong defence for Durkheim’s functionalist perspective. Durkheim used the comparative method to study the official suicide rates of various European countries. While he was not the first to

Suicide is the intentional act of killing oneself. Typically individuals who commit suicide act out of despair. Common suicide triggers are mental disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and alcoholism and drug abuse. Personal issues such as financial problems or poor interpersonal relationships play a significant role in the cause of suicide (Gross, 2006).In the U.S suicide is the 6th cause of death. Suicide is also the leading cause of death among teenagers and young adults, more men commit suicide than women (Gelder et al, 2005).Leenar and Lester article mention important information about the general knowledge about suicide in college students. However relevant information is missing.

The first sociologist to research into suicide was Ėmile Durkheim; he “wished to show that sociological factors were ‘capable of explaining much about such anti-social phenomena’” (Gingrich). Durkheim’s research allowed for him to understand how society connected to the rates of suicide and, more detailed, the importance of social integration on the rates of suicide across the country. He found a correlation between the rates of suicide and the seasons because the amount of social interactions increased as the seasons became longer and people were more likely to interact with the more accommodating temperatures (Gingrich). His views on suicide can all relate back to the degree to which society plays a role in one’s life due to the amount of interactions one has with society and the regulations that society imposes on the individual (Gingrich). Along with this view Durkheim also created four different reasons for committing suicide. The first type of suicide is egoistic suicide is when social integration in very limited, and people have the feeling of being normless. Next is altruistic suicide where societal pressures were too great and where suicide is forced upon a person, like the ritual suicides found in Japan that will be discussed later in this text. Anomic suicide is when there is a change in society, and the norms and

When an individual is too heavily integrated into the society, suicide will be committed regardless of their own hesitation if society 's norms have requested it. Anomie refers to when there is a low level of social regulation between society 's norms and the individual.Suicide in this cae occurs when the norms and values of society are not the same as those held by the individual. Durkheim believed that since the individual does not identify with the norms of the society, suicide seems to be a way to escape them. Fatalism is a state opposite to anomie as it refers to when the individual is highly socially regulated; the high level of discipline and oppression means there is very little hope for change. Durkheim believed that the individual will commit suicide as a way of escaping the society. (Gingrich, 1999)

To break down why people commit suicide, in a social aspect, sociologist David Emile Durkheim, broke it into four different terms of situations that are called: egoistic, altruistic, anomic, and fatalistic. Durkheim says, “Egoistic suicide occurs in a society where there is excessive individualism, that is, low social interaction” (“Altruistic”). This means there is little interaction between the individual and a cohesive social group that could give the individual a feel of purpose in their life. People with more interaction create goals, values, and bonds with people around them in a social group that increases their

Sociologist Emile Durkheim believes that “the bond between one’s self and his or her country are crucial factors in suicide.” Others sociologist believe people commit suicide to escape from intolerable pain, feelings of hopelessness or depression and other mental disorders. After studies were completed, it was concluded that most people who think about committing suicide never actually try to kill themselves. Studies show that for every one person who attempts suicide, three consider it, but never act upon it. Soldiers kill themselves because military training following by combat, makes them sensitive to pain and finality. From 2009-2012, military suicides have increased from 18.5 to 22.7 out 100,000 active-duty service members. But, in 2013,

Some people who commit suicide are those who have psychological disorders, because of the symptoms that go alone with those disorders, such as depression. When one is depressed, they have a feeling of hopelessness and helplessness which may lead to them feeling like they don't want to be alive anymore. There is also a neurobiological model. Heritability is believed to play a role in suicide attempts. Low levels of serotonin

Traditionally, suicide was thought to be a purely individual decision but French sociologist Emile Durkheim recognized that the phenomenon had a social dimension. He believed in the influence of society on the individual and that if anything can explain that relation, it is suicide. His use of the data of suicide, not specific cases and reports, to study the societal trends reveals his true subject of study: society as a whole and its role in the individual experience. Durkheim uses the study of suicide via the quantitative methodological approach as a tool to study society as a broader whole.