Theories Of Emile Durkheim Suicide

For the purpose of the current essay, suicide will be defined, as an act or instance of taking ones own life through direct, deliberate and immediate acts that lead to death life through direct, deliberate and immediate acts that lead to death (XXXXX). Importantly, one should remember that there are different forms of suicide. For example, euthanasia to end suffering or physician assisted suicide as well as adolescent suicides for individuals that are prepubescent and honor suicides which are completed to escape the shame, placed on themselves or others, of an action they did. Additionally, there are two forms of attempted suicides that should be considered. First there is para suicide, or an attempted suicide using nonlethal means (Curra). Often, these are suicide attempts or gestures such as consuming a nonlethal amount of medication or cutting where the cut is not deep enough to cause significant blood less. Although there are numerous forms of suicide, the primary focus for the remainder of this essay will be on

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”.

The debate between Mark A.R. Kleinman and Ira Byock discuss the topic of suicide whether it should be legal or not; Kleinman is arguing for suicide to be legal, which will come to the conclusion that suicide should be allowed for anyone and not have any punishment for an attempt. Byock argues the opposing argument that suicide should be illegal, but the focus of this argument will be Kleiman’s point of view. The exigency, the problem that can be fixed, is viewed in this argument that it is the people’s right to kill themselves and this is due to the depression and/or the feeling of thinking they are better off dead. The audience directed towards this argument is people committing suicide and those who oppose the people committing the ‘crime’ of suicide. Constraints, the biases, in this situation would be ethical beliefs and the people who have witnessed or experienced these suicidal thoughts. Kleinman’s reasoning is the use of emotion and human rights are seen to enhance his argument. Therefore suicide should not be legal, it should be treated instead of encouraged.

In the study of philosophy, it is evident that there are notions that agree and disagree with each other. When we narrow down philosophical time periods, it is even more interesting to see how ideas conflict in such a short period of time. As we observe the period between Georg Hegel and Friedrich Nietzsche, we are approached with an array of beliefs as religious philosophy is combined with non-religious philosophy. The undeniable aspect is that each concept can be adequately compared. In studying Georg Hegel, John Stuart Mill, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Friedrich Nietzsche, it is evident that each takes a supreme stance on morality. Therefore, I propose the question, “Is it morally permissible to commit suicide”? By analyzing each philosophical approach to this question, each philosopher’s notion on the concept will be revealed.

On average, every day, 121 people die from suicide, which means 44,193 deaths each year just in the United States. On the other hand, for every one suicide, there are at least 25 attempts. Every attempt that “failed” is just another chance to save a life. An unknown source once quoted “Suicide doesn’t end the chances of life getting worse, it eliminates the possibility of it ever getting any better.” There are multiple methods a person can choose from to commit suicide, but this essay will be discussing two specific methods: jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge and physician-assisted suicide.

The topic of suicide can easily become uncomfortable when discussing. Thoughts of family or friends using a permanent solution to a temporary problem is hard to grasp. Why would an individual choose to do this? Did it stem from personal reasons or was it fueled by a number of out-siding factors. Using Sociology we can decipher human behavior and gain an insight into a global issue .

In The Politics of Suicide, Maria Teresa Brancaccio, Eric J. Engstrom, and David Lederer investigate and unravel the conceptualization and operationalization of suicide in the years leading up the Emile Durkheim. It wasn’t until the age of the Enlightenment that the concept of taking one’s own life was deemed worthy of scientific analysis (Brancaccio, Engstrom, & Lederer, 2013). It was during this time that police, physicians, and mental health care providers began to determine the indicators of such potential behaviors and began to see such rising trends as modern social dilemma (2013).

Suicide has always been an intriguing and permanent solution to end an individual’s sorrow. This act of intentionally ending one's life seems to be the only option when individuals are willing to sacrifice their own life in hopes of finding tranquility. By overlooking a topic, such as suicide, there will be a lost on opportunities that are capable of preventing such actions. Suicide has always been around and to simply define it, this self destruction is a way to escape the horrible realities of life. The common expectation for the public is that everyone is aware of mental health or stability.

Durkheim does not see egoism, altruism, anomie and fatalism as types of suicide, but types of social structure that highlight the presence or lack of integration and regulation. It must be stressed that this excess/lack of integration and regulation are not seen as direct causes of suicide, rather Durkheim sees a number of voluntary deaths in society as inevitable; integration and regulation are merely prophylactic to suicidal impulses, which when taken to excess or dramatically reduced, fail to act as a preventative, and so suicides occur. This clarification is an important strength of Durkheim’s theory: it allows the biography of the individuals who kill themselves to vary, while still explaining underlying pressures/lack of to explain their deaths, and the varying suicide rates between groups.

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Finally, we have Fatalistic suicide, which occurs in societies with high levels of social regulation. This is only briefly discussed in Durkheim’s work, as he saw Fatalistic suicide, “as a rare phenomena in the real world.� (I1) An example might be someone with an overregulated and difficult life, like a slave.

Durkheim defines fatalistic suicide as the results of “excessive regulation”. In many traditional societies, fatalism was served as an illustration of suicide; Durkheim was faced with the problem that even in societies which have an abundance of social capital, individuals, even so, kill themselves. For example, the conditions which many African men and women had to endure during the time of slavery may have made individuals feel that the only way to escape was through suicide. Since the many men and women would consider themselves to be in a hopeless position with a condemned fate or immediately doomed to be a slave. Fatalism focuses on high regulation and low integration to help prevent this suicide from continuing on, individuals can stop reverting to the old way of thinking things. Racism is old and a worn-out way of thinking. People should embrace everyone and increase integration amongst societies. By incorporating culture and different views. With this approach fatalistic suicide will slowly decrease and consolidate a future of involvement and authority for people to improve their

In his work On Suicide that was published originally in 1897, Durkheim addresses four specific forms and triggers of suicide. These are not considered to be ideal types in his belief but they can be measured in social situations (Walsh, 27/09/16, s. 6-8). It is within all of these four extreme types that suicide rates are the highest. The first of these is named egoistic suicide. According to Durkheim, egoistic suicide occurs when an individual is not integrated or invested in society at all, their life is overly individualistic. This form of suicide and individuality can be associated with the term organic solidarity. Organic solidarity is used in more modern, industrialized organized societies where the individual starts to see themselves as unique and the focal point of importance rather than being connected to this large conglomerate of people. An egoistic person does not affiliate strongly with any form of institution that would offer stability or community in their life. He often associates egoistic suicide with religious affiliations, especially Protestantism (Durkheim, 2006: 156). Due to the core values of the Protestant religion being on the emphasis of individualism and interpreting the sacred texts on your own, there is a gap

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.