Discuss Emile Durkheims analysis ofsuicideand its effects on human society.(1999) Durkheim wrote extensively on thesuicide. Critically examine his views about suicide.(2003)

mile Durkheim quotes(showing 1-5 of 5) Melancholy suide. --This is connected with a general state of extreme depression and exaggerated sadness, causing the patient no longer to realize sanely the bonds which connect him with people and things about him. Pleasures no longer attract;mile Durkheim,Suicide: A Study in Sociology tags:connections,depression,melancholy,people,sanity,suicide 7 people liked it like When mores are sufficient, laws are unnecessary; when mores are insufficient, laws are unenforceable.mile Durkheim tags:law,rule 5 people liked it like Socialism is not a science, a sociology in miniature: it is a cry of pain.mile Durkheim tags:socialism 3 people liked it like Man cannot become attached to higher aims and submit to a rule if he sees nothing above him to which he belongs. To free himself from all social pressure is to abandon himself and demoralize him.mile Durkheim tags:anomie,freedom 2 people liked it like ...Solidarity is, literally something which the society possesses.mile Durkheim

Durkheim defined suicide as "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."Emile Durkheim(1858-1917)is considered one of the "fathers" of sociology because of his effort to establish sociology as a discipline distinct from philosophy and psychology. This effort is evident in the two main themes that permeate Durkheim's work: the priority of the social over the individual and the idea that society can be studied scientifically. Durkheim's concept of social facts, in particular, differentiates sociology from philosophy and psychology.Social factsare the social structures and cultural norms and values that are external to, and coercive over, individuals. Social facts are not attached to any particular individual; nor are they reducible to individual consciousness. Thus, social facts can be studied empirically. According to Durkheim, two different types of social facts exist: material and immaterial. Durkheim was most interested in studying the latter, particularly morality, collective conscience, collective representation, and social currents.SuicideDurkheim's goal to differentiate sociology from psychology is perhaps best seen in this work on how social facts can be used to explain suicide rates. This work is also important because of the historical comparative method that Durkheim uses to show that that suicide rates vary across societies and over time. According to Durkheim, suicide cannot simply be explained by individual psychological problems-otherwise suicide rates would be static. Durkheim argues that two social facts, in particular, influence suicide rates: integration, or the strength of attachment people feel to society, and regulation, or the degree of external constraint on people. Durkheim distinguishes between four types of suicide that correlate to these two social facts. Egoistic suicide is a result of a lack of integration; altruistic suicide is a result of too much integration; anomic suicide is a result of too little regulation; and fatalistic suicide is a result of too much regulation.

Durkheim's Suicide was one of the groundbreaking works in sociology. He wrote it at the end of the 19thcentury with the intention of demonstrating the analytical method of sociology. However, beyond this, most of his findings about suicide still stand firm.While 'Suicide' is not a counselling book, there are many points (both in theory and in method) that may be interesting for students of counselling and counsellors.Although Durkheim wrote 'Suicide' to demonstrate the use of sociological methods on a concrete social problem, many of his findings still stand. He asserted that suicide was a social phenomenon, the primary causes of suicide were social: the collapse of social relationships or (just the opposite) the overpowering of social relationships. The three main trends in suicide research (suicide and other deviant behaviours, status integration and role-conflicts, the ways in which social effects manifest themselves in psychological processes) derive from Durkheim's study.Suicide(French:Le Suicide) was one of the groundbreaking books in the field ofsociology. Written by Frenchsociologistmile Durkheimand published in 1897 it was acase study(some argue that it is not a case study, and that this is what makes it unique among other scholarly work on the same subject) ofsuicide. FindingsDurkheim explores the differing suicide rates amongProtestantsand Catholics, arguing that strongersocial controlamong Catholics results in lower suicide rates. According to Durkheim, Catholic society has normal levels ofintegrationwhile Protestant society has low levels. There are at least two problems with this interpretation. First, Durkheim took most of his data from earlier researchers, notablyAdolph WagnerandHenry Morselli,[1]who were much more careful in generalizing from their own data. Second, later researchers found that the Protestant-Catholic differences in suicide seemed to be limited toGerman-speaking Europeand thus may always have been the spurious reflection of other factors.[2]Despite its limitations, Durkheim's work on suicide has influenced proponents ofcontrol theory, and is often mentioned as a classic sociological study.Durkheim established that: Suicide rates are higher in men than women (although married women who remained childless for a number of years ended up with a high suicide rate) Suicide rates are higher for those who are single than those who are married Suicide rates are higher for people without children than people with children Suicide rates are higher among Protestants than Catholics and Jews Suicide rates are higher among soldiers than civilians Suicide rates are higher in times of peace than in times of war (the suicide rate in France fell after thecoup d'etatofLouis Bonaparte, for example. War also reduced the suicide rate, afterwar broke out in 1866between Austria and Italy, the suicide rate fell by 14% in both countries.) Suicide rates are higher in Scandinavian countries the higher the education level, the more likely it was that an individual would commit suicide, however Durkheim established that there is more correlation between an individual's religion and suicide rate than an individual's education level; Jewish people were generally highly educated but had a low suicide rate.[edit]Types of suicideDurkheim defines suicide as follows:...the term 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, 1897[3]He also distinguished between four subtypes of suicide: Egoistic suicidereflects a prolonged sense of not belonging, of not being integrated in a community, an experience, of not having a tether, an absence that can give rise to meaninglessness, apathy, melancholy, and depression.[4]It is the result of a weakening of the bonds that normally integrate individuals into the collectivity: in other words a breakdown or decrease ofsocial integration. Durkheim refers to this type of suicide as the result of "excessiveindividuation", meaning that the individual becomes increasingly detached from other members of his community. Those individuals who were not sufficiently bound to social groups (and therefore well-defined values, traditions, norms, and goals) were left with little social support or guidance, and therefore tended to commit suicide on an increased basis. An example Durkheim discovered was that of unmarried people, particularly males, who, with less to bind and connect them to stable social norms and goals, committed suicide at higher rates than married people.[5] Altruistic suicide: is characterized by a sense of being overwhelmed by a group's goals and beliefs.[6]It occurs in societies with high integration, where individual needs are seen as less important than the society's needs as a whole. They thus occur on the opposite integration scale as egoistic suicide.[5]As individual interest would not be considered important, Durkheim stated that in an altruistic society there would be little reason for people to commit suicide. He stated one exception, namely when the individual is expected to kill themselves on behalf of society a primary example being the soldier in military service. Anomic suicide: reflects an individual's moral confusion and lack of social direction, which is related to dramatic social and economic upheaval.[7]It is the product of moral deregulation and a lack of definition of legitimate aspirations through a restraining social ethic, which could impose meaning and order on the individual conscience. This is symptomatic of a failure of economic development and division of labour to produce Durkheim's organicsolidarity. People do not know where they fit in within their societies. Durkheim explains that this is a state of moral disorder where man does not know the limits on his desires, and is constantly in a state of disappointment. This can occur when man goes through extreme changes in wealth; while this includes economic ruin, it can also include windfall gains - in both cases, previous expectations from life are brushed aside and new expectations are needed before he can judge his new situation in relation to the new limits. Fatalistic suicide: the opposite of anomic suicide, when a person is excessively regulated, when their futures are pitilessly blocked and passions violently choked by oppressive discipline.[8]It occurs in overly oppressive societies, causing people to prefer to die than to carry on living within their society. This is an extremely rare reason for people to take their own lives, but a good example would be within aprison; people prefer to die than live in a prison with constant abuse and excessive regulation that prohibits them from pursuing their desires.These four types of suicide are based on the degrees of imbalance of two social forces: social integration and moral regulation.[5]Durkheim noted the effects of various crises on social aggregates war, for example, leading to an increase inaltruism, economic boom or disaster contributing toanomie.[9][edit]CriticismDurkheim's study of suicide has been criticized as an example of thelogical errortermed theecological fallacy.[10][11]Indeed, Durkheim's conclusions about individual behaviour (e.g. suicide) are based onaggregate statistics(the suicide rate among Protestants and Catholics). This type ofinference, explainingmicroevents in terms ofmacroproperties, is often misleading, as is shown by examples ofSimpson's paradox.[12]However, diverging views have contested whether Durkheim's work really contained an ecological fallacy. Van Poppel and Day (1996) have advanced that differences in suicide rates between Catholics and Protestants were explicable entirely in terms of how deaths were categorized between the two social groups. For instance, while "sudden deaths" or "deaths from ill-defined or unspecified cause" would often be recorded as suicides among Protestants, this would not be the case for Catholics. Hence Durkheim would have committed an empirical rather than logical error.[13]Some, such as Inkeles (1959),[14]Johnson (1965)[15]and Gibbs (1968),[16]have claimed that Durkheim's only intent was to explain suicidesociologicallywithin aholisticperspective, emphasizing that "he intended his theory to explain variation amongsocial environmentsin the incidence of suicide, not the suicides of particular individuals."[17]More recent authors such as Berk (2006) have also questioned themicro-macro relationsunderlying Durkheim's work. For instance, Berk notices thatDurkheim speaks of a "collective current" that reflects the collective inclination flowing down the channels of social organization. The intensity of the current determines the volume of suicides (...) Introducing psychological [i.e. individual] variables such as depression, [which could be seen as] an independent [non-social] cause of suicide, overlooks Durkheim's conception that these variables are the ones most likely to be effected by the larger social forces and without these forces suicide may not occur within such individuals.[18]Jennifer M. Lehmann critiques Durkheim's major works such asSuicidefrom a feminist, Structuralist Marxist, multiculturalist perspective, and a Deconstructionist method, inDeconstructing Durkheim(Routledge 1993);Durkheim and Women(University of Nebraska Press 1994); and chapters and articles inSociological Theory(1990);Current Perspectives in Sociological Theory(1991);American Sociological Review(1995); andAmerican Journal of Sociological Theory(1995).[edit]See alsoFour Types of SuicideThe manner in which social integration and regulation work can be better seen by examining the four fold classification of suicides that Durkheim developed. Durkheim ends his discussion of the organic-psychic and physical environmental factors by concluding that they cannot explain "each social group[s] ... specific tendency to suicide." (Suicide, p. 145). By eliminating other explanations, Durkheim claims that these tendencies must depend on social causes and must be collective phenomena. The key to each type is a social factor, with the degrees of integration and regulation into society being either too high or too low. (The following discussion is drawn from Ritzer, pp. 90 ff.).1. Egoistic Suicide. This is the type of suicide that occurs where the degree of social integration is low, and there is a sense of meaningless among individuals. In traditional societies, with mechanical solidarity, this is not likely to be the cause of suicide. There the strong collective consciousness gives people a broad sense of meaning to their lives. Within modern society, the weaker collective consciousness means that people may not see the same meaning in their lives, and unrestrained pursuit of individual interests may lead to strong dissatisfaction. One of the results of this can be suicide. Individuals who are strongly integrated into a family structure, a religious group, or some other type of integrative group are less likely to encounter these problems, and that explains the lower suicide rates among them.The factors leading to egoistic suicide can be social currents such as depression and disillusionment. For Durkheim, these are social forces or social facts, even though it is the depressed or melancholy individual who takes his or her life voluntarily. "Actors areneverfree of the force of the collectivity: 'However individualized a man may be, there is always something collective remaining the very depression and melancholy resulting from this same exaggerated individualism.'" Also, on p. 214 ofSuicide, Durkheim says "Thence are formed currents of depression and disillusionment emanating from no particular individual but expressing society's state of disillusionment." Durkheim notes that "the bond attaching man to life relaxes because that attaching him to society is itself slack. ... The individual yields to the slightest shock of circumstance because the state of society has made him a ready prey to suicide." (Suicide, pp. 214-215).2. Altruistic Suicide. This is the type of suicide that occurs when integration is too great, the collective consciousness too strong, and the "individual is forced into committing suicide." (Ritzer, p. 91). Integration may not be the direct cause of suicide here, but the social currents that go along with this very high degree of integration can lead to this. The followers of Jim Jones of the Peoples Temple or the members of the Solar Temple are an example of this, as are ritual suicides in Japan. Ritzer notes that some may "feel it is their duty" to commit suicide. (p. 91). Examples in primitive society cited by Durkheim are suicides of those who are old and sick, suicides of women following the death of their husband, and suicides of followers after the death of a chief. According to Durkheim this type of suicide may actually "springs from hope, for it depends on the belief in beautiful perspectives beyond this life."3. Anomic Suicide. Anomie or anomy come from the Greek meaning lawlessness.Nomosmeans usage, custom, or law andnemeinmeans to distribute. Anomy thus is social instability resulting from breakdown of standards and values. (Webster's Dictionary).This is a type of suicide related to too low a degree of regulation, or external constraint on people. As with the anomic division of labour, this can occur when the normal form of the division of labour is disrupted, and "the collectivity is temporarily incapable of exercising its authority over individuals." (Ritzer, p. 92). This can occur either during periods associated with economic depression (stock market crash of the 1930s) or over-rapid economic expansion. New situations with few norms, the regulative effect of structures is weakened, and the individual may feel rootless. In this situation, an individual may be subject to anomic social currents. People that are freed from constraints become "slaves to their passions, and as a result, according to Durkheim's view, commit a wide range of destructive acts, including killing themselves in greater numbers than they ordinarily would." (Ritzer, p., 92). In addition to economic anomie, Durkheim also spends time examining domestic anomie. For example, suicides of family members may occur after the death of a husband or wife.4. Fatalistic Suicide. When regulation is too strong, Durkheim considers the possibility that "persons with futures pitilessly blocked and passions violently choked by oppressive discipline" may see no way out. The individual sees no possible manner in which their lives can be improved, and when in a state of melancholy, may be subject to social currents of fatalistic suicide.Summary. Durkheim's analysis of suicide shows the manner in which the social as opposed to the psychological and biological can be emphasized, and how it results in some useful ways of analyzing the actions of individuals. Suicide rates as expressions of social currents are social facts that affect societies and individuals within those societies. The study of psychology is still useful in attempting to determine individual motives and the manner in which the specific circumstances can lead to an individual deciding to voluntarily end their life. But an analysis of these circumstances should be set within the context of the social currents to which that individual is subject.The method of analysis of Durkheim should prove useful even today. In terms of suicide, the social causes are now well recognized, and any analysis of suicide would have to include these. Some combination of egoistic, anomic, and fatalistic types of suicide may help explain and understand this phenomenon. More generally, the method ofSuicideis exemplary in providing researchers with a means of understanding the social factors that are associated with particular phenomena. Durkheim examines patterns on the data in an attempt to determine how social factors can play a role in explaining these phenomena. This might be applied to sociobiological arguments today. The trends themselves are not the cause, but indicative of a cause, a social explanation has to be found.C. Conclusions about Durkheim1. Contributionsa. Social Facts and Social Aspects.These are real things that do affect people. He had a strong structural view of society, and the manner in which each of us is influenced by these social facts and how we must fit into these. Durkheim attempted to see a role for the social as distinguished from the economic, psychological and biological. This can be seen in his view of the social influences on suicide rates, where he takes a wide variety of factors and considers their influence on the tendency or aptitude for suicide. The effect of each of these factors is not a simple connection between the factor and the tendency to suicide, but must be mediated by social factors. In particular, the social factors that he identified were the degree of integration and the degree of regulation. For modern theories of sociobiology, and the influence of genetics, Durkheim's approach could prove a useful counter.b. Division of Labourand forms of solidarity. Durkheim again shows how the division of labour is set within a social context, so that economic relationships are governed by social conventions that may not always be apparent. Durkheim's view that the division of labour does not result in a disintegration of society, but changes the form of social solidarity provides a useful way of examining modern society.The last few pages of Giddens' discussion of Durkheim examines individuality and individual freedom within an overall structure (Giddens, pp. 115-118). Durkheim notes that individualism is a product of long historical developments within western society, with the French Revolution giving a "decisive impetus to the growth of moral individualism." (Giddens, p. 116). Part of this view is the sanctity of the individual, the worth of the human individual, individual rights and the encouragement of individual action and initiative. But Durkheim notes that these themselves are social facts in the sense that these ideas are social products, created by society. Durkheim further argues that they are not the product of egoism, that is, self-interest as the basic motivation for human action. While the development of individualism will promote self-interest and egoism, this is not the source of individualism, and an unchecked development of egoism would destroy society. This is not what happens though, except perhaps under exceptional circumstances.What Durkheim argues is that freedom is not to be identified with liberation from all restraints, this results in anomie (Giddens, p. 117). Rather, freedom exists in being "master of oneself" by "putting oneself under the wing of society." That is, freedom is achieved within a set of moral rules, and discipline within this set of rules is an essential aspect of freedom. The notion of rights and responsibilities may be a means of tying these together.c. Sociological Approaches. Many of common approaches to sociology derive from Durkheim. The method of attempting to determine social facts and their influence, along with concepts such as norms, values, socialization, institutions, etc. could be considered to come at least partly from Durkheim.2. ProblemsAt the same time as Durkheim made a number of important contributions to sociology, there are a number of problems with his analysis. Some of these are as follows.a. Action. As noted above, Durkheim has a particular view of human freedom and this may be regarded as too limited. Or even if this approach is adopted, it is not clear what is the basis for individual human motivation and action. Durkheim's view is a very strong structural view. Society and social facts more or less determine our behaviour, and we have little option but to accept those. He favours such an approach, and considers deviations from this as abnormal. This could allow his approach to be used to identify any behaviour that is not part of the common morality as abnormal and perhaps deviant, something that has to be corrected or eliminated. For example, immigrants, youth culture, etc.While there are many aspects of a common morality in our society, there are also many opportunities for individuals acting in a variety of ways in similar situations. Durkheim might recognize this as possible, but he seems to have little to say concerning the nature of human motivation. He is too concerned with the larger structural issues. Durkheim and Marx are similar in this sense, they both have a very strong structural view, with limited possibility for human action, or little theory of human action. Weber's model of action or some of the more recent approaches such as symbolic interaction would prove more useful here.b. Consensus, Solidarity and Common Consciousness. While Durkheim makes a useful contribution in presenting ideas concerning the source of societal solidarity, this often appears to be his only concern. One difficulty with Durkheim and the structural functional approach is that the latter almost completely ignore conflict and power differences. Durkheim may have constructed his approach in part to negate the Marxian or conflict approach to the study of society. Durkheim treats the anomic and forced forms of the division of labour as unusual, and devotes little time to their analysis.There are, however, several key issues that are highly problematic in Durkheim's approach.Firstly, in correspondence with the philosophy of his time, he asserted that humans have infinite desires that are constrained by social norms. Hence his conclusion, for example, that marriage protects against suicide as it constrains sexual desire. The theoretical background, though Durkheim did not state it, is the psycho-biologist explanation.Secondly, Durkheim presented his findings in ideal types, which clearly do not exist in a concrete case (except for the exceptions) but in combinations with other ideal types. This leads to the question of the existence of mixed types and the characteristics of these.Thirdly, Durkheim, on correspondence with the method of sociology, concentrated on correlations and measurable phenomena. As a result, causality was a problem (as correlations do not mean causality) and so were the deep, invisible relationships (the essence) among phenomena. Durkheim, however, was aware of the problem and the reader will be easily identify the points at which Durkheim went beyond the measurable, countable phenomena. This, among other factors, explains the huge, enduring influence of this book.Let us now turn to Durkheim's analysis of suicide.He first dealt with theextra-social effects: psychology, cosmic effects and imitation.Suicide and madnessPsychiatrists at the time claimed that all suicide was related to mental illness. They classified four types of suicide:Maniac suicide: caused by hallucinations, delirium. The patient kills himself to escape from such imagined danger, shame or accept some external order. The intention to commit suicide appears suddenly and if the attempt fails, he will not repeat the attempt (or the cause is different).Melancholic suicide: related to extreme depression. The patient cannot determine his real relationship to others and the environment. The intention to commit suicide is very stabile. Such patients prepare the means of their death with great patience and repeat the attempt until success.Nightmare suicide: caused by death wish: the patient wants to kill himself without any real cause. According to the psychiatrists of the era it was similar to kleptomania, serial murder and arson. They also called this form of suicide anxiety suicide. As soon as the patient decides to give up the struggle against death wish, his anxiety goes.Automatic or impulsive suicide: similar to the nightmare suicide as there is no reason for it, but there is no struggle (hence it is impulsive).Durkheim then investigated these types on the basis of statistical evidence. He found four pieces of evidence that clearly disproved the statistical relationship between suicide and mental illness.1. He found that women were more likely to be mentally ill: 54-55 women for 46-45 men, while 75-82% of suicides were committed by men.2. Mental illness was higher among Jews than among Catholics or Protestants, while the suicide rate was much lower.3. The suicide rate increased with age, while mental illness declined after 30-35 years of age.4. While high population of mental illness coincided with a higher number of suicides, there was no correlation between the two, because the growth in suicide was not systematic with the growth of mental illnesses.Suicide and normal psychological conditions, heritanceDurkheim said that there was no systematic information on these causes, but anecdotal evidence suggested the existence of such causes. He cited a few cases in which the members of a family, at various times, killed themselves using the same method. But he also cited examples, where in a similar phenomenon could not be explained by heritage. For example in 1772 fifteen war casualties hanged themselves on the same hook in an inn. Once the hook was removed, there was no more suicide. In a military base in Boulogne a soldier shot himself in a guard hut. A few days later several more soldiers followed the example. Once the hut was burned down, the suicides stopped.However, Durkheim stated, if heritage was a factor, it should have affected both sexes, but it was not the case. Also age should not then play a role in the factor of heritage, but he found that suicide was rare among children and was the highest among old.Suicide and cosmic factorsFirstly, Durkheim demonstrated that there was no relationship between geography and suicide. While in the 19thcentury suicide was lowest in the south and north of Europe, it changed during history. Or, for example, while before 1870 suicide was the highest in North Italy, then Central Italy and then the South, by the end of the century it reversed to the opposite.Secondly, it was a common wisdom that winter and autumn could cause suicide. But in fact 60% of suicides happened in the warm months and only 40% in the rest of the year. Moreover, there was no systematic relationship between temperature or sunshine (more suicide was committed at daytime than in the night, but there was no correlation between the length of day and the number of suicides). In terms of months, most suicide in France and Prussia were committed between April and July, but again temperature and number of suicide did not correlate. Furthermore, the suicide rate was higher in the middle of Europe (where it is cold in the winter and warm in the summer), while in the South the suicide rate was low (where the temperature is relatively stable).ImitationDurkheim stated that there was no doubt in that suicide could spreadlikean epidemic. However, if suicide was an epidemic, it should have been reflected geographically, but this was not the case.After disproving the above causes, Durkheim turns to thesocial causes.Within this category, Durkheim created the following ideal types of suicideEgoist suicideFirst Durkheim examined the role of religion. In Catholic countries suicide was low, in Protestant countries it was high. Among Jews (while the Jewish belief does not forbid suicide), the suicide rate was even lower, though it started to increase around 1870. Considering that most Jews lived in towns and had white-collar jobs (both cases suggest a higher suicide rate), Durkheim concluded, Jewish religion had to be an important factor. In addition, he found that in cases when any of these religions were in minority in a particular geographic area, the suicide rate was even lower. Durkheim argued that the greater freedom given in Protestantism had to be related to the higher suicide rate, but only in relationship with the type of Protestant church. In England, the suicide rate was only about the fifth of the German protestant states, but, argues Durkheim, the Church of England (and the English society) was much more integrated and regulated than in Germany. In addition, the ratio between believers and priests was the highest in England (908), while in Germany 1600. In Catholic areas the ratio between believers and priests was even lower: in Italy 267, in Belgium 1050. Furthermore, among Protestants the value of learning was much higher than among Catholics (and among learned people suicide was more common). The fact that among Jewish communities the suicide rate was lower while education was higher, however, contradicted the proposition. Durkheim argued that higher education causes suicide not by itself, but only if it represents the shaking of traditional values. Consequently, Protestants did not commit more suicide because they believe in God or the eternity of soul less than Catholics, but because the cohesion of the Protestant Church was weaker.Secondly, Durkheim examined the role of marriage. Figures showed that married men committed more suicide than bachelors. However, a proper analysis (exclusion of men unlikely to get married - children) showed that suicide is higher among bachelors than among married men. But if the fact that the suicide rate increased with age and bachelors were younger than married men accounted for, Durkheim argued, being a bachelor increased the likelihood of suicide by 160% (or marriage reduced it by 50%).Similar problems emerged about widows. Among one million 65 years old widows 628 committed suicide, while among one million 65 years old men only 461. However, the fact was that this age consisted almost exclusively married men (about 90%), therefore, the sample was very good. Durkheim's analysis showed that although widows were more likely to kill themselves than married people, they were less likely to do so than bachelors or maidens. Again Durkheim argued that although the family is factor behind the figures, but a simple conclusion would have been problematic. Firstly, because the number of marriages barely changed in his period, while suicide tripled, secondly, because it was clearly influenced by age. Importantly, Durkheim points out, that not simply marriage was the factor, but marriage with children. If there were children in the marriage, the suicide rate was lower than in the infertile families. Therefore, not marriage, but the family as a social unit (with its cohesion) is the factor.Thirdly, Durkheim investigated the role of crises and wars. He demonstrated that in social crises (e.g. revolutions) and wars the number of suicide dropped.All in all, the more religious a society was the less likely it was to have high suicide rate, the stronger the family was in a society the less likely it was to have high suicide rate, the more integrated a society was, the less likely it was to have high suicide rate.Altruist suicideDurkheim argued that less 'civilised' societies also knew suicide and cited examples (Inuit, native Americans, Germans in the Roman era, Indians, etc.). He differentiated between three groups of people committing suicide in these societies: 1) old or ill people; 2) Women after their husband's death; 3) suicide of servants after the leader's death. In all these cases people did not choose suicide, he argued, but it was their obligation. Thus, these suicides happened because of the higher superiority of the values and interests of the community compared to the values and interests of the members of the community.Then Durkheim turned to the armed forces. He pointed out that the suicide rate was very high in military service and he considered it to be a surprising result. It was surprising, because military (similarly to religions and cohesive societies) there was a strong solidarity and the individuals were physically fitter than the rest of the society. Furthermore, the cause of the suicide could not be attributed to the hatred towards the service or inability to adjust to the routines of the military service, because the suicide rate was proportionately increased with the length of service. Also, suicide rates among NCOs and officers were much higher than among privates. Furthermore, suicide was higher in elite units than in normal units. Finally, the weaker the military spirit was in a unit the lower the suicide rate was. Thus, Durkheim argued, NCOs and officers had to give up so much of their individuality to adjust to the requirement of the service that made them vulnerable to suicide.Anomic suicideDurkheim classified social suicide in this category.Statistics showed that during economic crises (recessions) suicide rate increased. However, fast growth periods also correlated with high suicide rates. Therefore, Durkheim concluded, it was not poverty that created suicide. Essentially, Durkheim argued, these periods weakened social norms or at least made them uncertain and this reduced the cohesion of the society, which in turn, led to higher suicide rates. Durkheim also stated that social changes could create such a situation. In his time there was a strong correlation between divorce and suicide: divorcees were three times as likely to commit suicide than married people.From all these Durkheim concluded: there were different types of suicides and the causes of committing suicide could contradict to each other.

Sociology as a Discipline and Social FactsEmile Durkheim(1858-1917)is considered one of the "fathers" of sociology because of his effort to establish sociology as a discipline distinct from philosophy and psychology. This effort is evident in the two main themes that permeate Durkheim's work: the priority of the social over the individual and the idea that society can be studied scientifically. Durkheim's concept of social facts, in particular, differentiates sociology from philosophy and psychology.Social factsare the social structures and cultural norms and values that are external to, and coercive over, individuals. Social facts are not attached to any particular individual; nor are they reducible to individual consciousness. Thus, social facts can be studied empirically. According to Durkheim, two different types of social facts exist: material and immaterial. Durkheim was most interested in studying the latter, particularly morality, collective conscience, collective representation, and social currents.The Division of LaborIn this work Durkheim discusses how modern society is held together by a division of labor that makes individuals dependent upon one another because they specialize in different types of work. Durkheim is particularly concerned about how the division of labor changes the way that individuals feel they are part of society as a whole. Societies with little division of labor (i.e., where people are self-sufficient) are unified bymechanical solidarity; all people engage in similar tasks and thus have similar responsibilities, which builds a strong collective conscience. Modern society, however, is held together byorganic solidarity(the differences between people), which weakenscollective conscience. Durkheim studied these different types of solidarity through laws. A society with mechanical solidarity is characterized by repressive law, while a society with organic solidarity is characterized by restitutive law.SuicideDurkheim's goal to differentiate sociology from psychology is perhaps best seen in this work on how social facts can be used to explain suicide rates. This work is also important because of the historical comparative method that Durkheim uses to show that that suicide rates vary across societies and over time. According to Durkheim, suicide cannot simply be explained by individual psychological problems-otherwise suicide rates would be static. Durkheim argues that two social facts, in particular, influence suicide rates: integration, or the strength of attachment people feel to society, and regulation, or the degree of external constraint on people. Durkheim distinguishes between four types of suicide that correlate to these two social facts. Egoistic suicide is a result of a lack of integration; altruistic suicide is a result of too much integration; anomic suicide is a result of too little regulation; and fatalistic suicide is a result of too much regulation.Elementary Forms of Religious LifeThis is perhaps Durkheim's most complex work, as he attempts to provide both a sociology of religion and a theory of knowledge. In this work, Durkheim studies primitive society to demonstrate that an enduring quality of all religions, even the most modern, is the differentiation between the sacred and the profane. The sacred is created through rituals, and what is deemed sacred is what morally binds individuals to society. This moral bond then becomes, according to Durkheim, a cognitive bond that shapes the categories we use to understand the social world.The development of religion is not simply based on the differentiation between the sacred and the profane, but also on religious beliefs, rituals, and the church. The latter two conditions are particularly important to Durkheim because they connect the individual to the social; individuals learn about the sacred and religious beliefs through participating in rituals and the church. The most primitive form of religion is totemism, which is connected to the least complex form of social organization, the clan. The totem is the actual representation of the clan-it is the material representation of the nonmaterial, collective morality of the clan.Totemism is important to Durkheim's theory of knowledge in that it is one of his categories of understanding: classification. Other categories of understanding include time, space, force, causality, and totality. These six categories may be abstract concepts, but they are all derived from social experiences, particularly rituals. Durkheim acknowledges that it is possible for moral and cognitive categories to change or be created anew through what he calls collective effervescence, or periods of great collective exaltation.Cult of the IndividualAlthough Durkheim focused much of his attention on the social, he did not dismiss the idea of individualism. Indeed, he believed that in modern society the individual has become sacred, and he called the modern form of collective conscience the cult of the individual. According to Durkheim, humans are constituted by two beings or selves: one is based on the isolated individuality of the body, and the other is based on the social. These two beings may be in a continual state of tension, and they are connected in that individuality develops as society develops. For example, it is only in modern society, characterized by the division of labor, that people even come to understand themselves as distinct individuals. Durkheim argued that individuality has both positive and negative consequences. Egoism, or the selfish pursuit of individual interests, is at odds with moral individualism, the ability to sacrifice self-interest for the rights of all other individual human beings.Moral Education and Social ReformDurkheim believed that society is the source of morality; therefore, he also believed that society could be reformed, especially through moral education. According to Durkheim, morality is composed of three elements: discipline, attachment, and autonomy. Discipline constrains egoistic impulses; attachment is the voluntary willingness to be committed to groups; and autonomy is individual responsibility. Education provides children with these three moral tools needed to function in society. Adults can also acquire these moral tools by joining occupational associations. According to Durkheim, these associations would include members of a particular occupation regardless of class position and could provide a level of integration and regulation, both of which tend to be weakened by the division of labor.CriticismsDurkheim is often criticized for being a functionalist and a positivist. However, his historical comparative methodology puts him at odds with functionalists and positivists who believe that invariant social laws exist that can explain social phenomenon across all societies. Durkheim does tend to emphasize the objective nature of social facts; thus, he neglects the subjective interpretations that social actors may have of a particular social phenomenon and the agency of individuals in general to control social forces. Furthermore, Durkheim's basic assumption about human nature-that people are driven by their passion for gratification that can never be satisfied-is not empirically substantiated in any of his work. Finally, Durkheim's understanding of the relationship between morality and sociology has been critiqued as being conservative.

Scientists have been analyzing groups and societies for many years. This examination of social classes and their role in humankind is referred to as sociology. It evolved as a discipline beginning in the 19thcentury as scientists began to observe and study differences in social classes among people. The interactions, behaviors, and functions of groups of people are the basis for this type of science. By analyzing these traits, sociologists can determine how and why people behave or react in certain ways. They can analyze patterns of behavior to predict potential models of growth or change, and they can use these analyses to propose solutions to problems in society.mile Durkheimmile Durkheim is credited to be the father of sociology. Durkheim was born in the mid 19thcentury in France, the son of a Jewish rabbi. He was interested in behavioral studies, religion, and educational methods and began teaching at the university level as a young man. He wrote several pieces that were published, focusing on such subjects as religion and suicidal behavior. These works affected social science practitioners who followed him. Durkheim was the first to declare the importance of social science as a fundamental aspect of study in higher learning systems, and he brought sociology into the curriculum of the French educational system. What is Sociology?: A definition of the social science from the American Sociological Association. mile Durkheim: A summary presenting the history and works of the sociologist. mile Durkheim: His Life and Work: A short biography describing mile Durkheim and his work. Sociological Theory: An outline of the chronology of Durkheims life. mile Durkheim: A presentation about the background and contributions of the sociologist. Sociology Timeline: A brief description of the career of mile Durkheim. mile Durkheim Biography: The life history and work of Durkheim.Study on SuicideIn 1897, Durkheim published another literary work after his studies about suicidal behavior. The book,Suicide, discussed the role of anomie in terms of these actions. Durkheim proposed again that anomie, or a state where social norms were unknown or not expected, led to suicide of individuals. The state of anomie does not allow a person to propose objectives for him or herself, leading to a state of unhappiness that cannot be corrected. This unhappiness then leads to suicide for many. Societies need social order to exist to be able to set goals and maintain an awareness of proper behavior. The concept of anomie and Durkheims studies of suicide have influenced further generations of sociologists and future work in the field of social science. The Limits of Social Capital: A research article from the American Journal of Public Health referencing Durkheims work on social norms today. Suicide: A discussion of suicidal behavior reinforcing Durkheims concepts. mile Durkheim on Suicide: A background about Durkheim and his hypotheses about suicidal behavior. Anomic Suicide: An outline relating the theory of anomie to suicidal behavior. Suicide and Mental Health Association: A description of anomic suicide. Social Facts and Suicide: A lecture about Durkheims theories related to suicide.Durkheim's final category of suicide,fatalistic,is relegated to a footnote. This type of suicide occurred within tightly knit groups whose members sought, but could not attain, escape, whose "futures are pitilessly blocked and passions violently choked by oppressive discipline" (Durkheim 1951, p. 276). Prisoners of war or slaves who were bound into distinct groups dominated by other groups might commit suicide in order to escape group membership or to demonstrate control over their lives.Suicideconcludes by moving from what had been a taxonomy of suicide types toward an explanation of how social, political, and economic forces produced those types. For instance, Durkheim explored links between suicide and urbanization, developing how cities atomize individuals, producing egoistic suicides.

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mile Durkheim (18581917) is considered one of the most influential figures in the founding of modern sociology. Born in the eastern part of France, Durkheim descended from a long line of rabbis and trained to follow in their footsteps. As a young man, he turned away from organized religion and became an agnostic. While studying in Germany, he became convinced of the value of using scientific methods, properly modified, in the study of human behavior. Recognized as a promising scholar, Durkheim wrote several important works on the methods of sociology, the division of labor, the scientific study of religion, and how imbalances in the relations between self and society can lead to death.One of Durkheim's most influential books is a detailed study of suicide. When it was published in 1897,Le Suicidenot only changed the way in which suicide was understood, it fundamentally transformed the way sociological research was subsequently conducted. In that work, Durkheim created what became the standard structure for sociological research. On the first page of the book's introduction, he began defining the central term under discussion and proceeded to sketch out the tentative outlines of an explanation for suicide that would be informed by social science, replete with tables of suicide statistics.In critically reviewing the existing suicide literature, which largely viewed acts of self-destruction as having physiological or psychological origins, Durkheim wondered why people from similar genetic origins did not have similar rates of suicide. Why did rates vary within one region over time? If it was related to weakness of character, why was it unrelated to levels of alcoholism? Utilizing logic and statistics, Durkheim challenged both popular and academic explanations. In doing so, he indicated that the tentative sociological approach he had begun to develop in the book's introduction offered greater explanatory power. The majority of the book lays out what became a classic sociological explanation for suicide. There are four major types, all related to group cohesion or solidarity.Egoisticsuicide, Durkheim argued, was most common among groups of individuals with few connections to social groupings of any kind. Thus, loosely bound liberal Protestant groups had higher suicide rates than Catholics and Jews, for whom regular religious participation was expected; married people committed suicide at lower rates than singles; and nations undergoing political crises experienced lower rates because competing interests and parties became tightly integrated under stress.While egoistic suicide made sense to most readers, Durkheim's second category, that ofaltruisticsuicide, was more controversial. Durkheim argued

Training given to workers on suicide hotlines in the twenty-first century is largely based on the conclusions and categories originally introduced by mile Durkheim in 1897.CORBISthat certain types of suicide occurred among tightly knit groups when they came under severe threat and their members were prepared to die in the group's defense. Because suicide was widely understood as the act of sick or disturbed individuals, Durkheim's argument that soldiers who knowingly gave up their lives for their country were committing suicide appeared to diminish the valor of those actions. Durkheim delineated three types of altruistic suicide, based largely on a group's expectations that its members would undertake self-destruction in its defense.The third type of suicide,anomic,was identified with an abrupt shift in an individual's circumstances, shifts that removed him or her from membership in what had been a well-integrated group. Durkheim showed that nations where divorce was common experienced higher suicide rates than nations where the practice was illegal. Similarly, economic crisis could lead to personal crises for individuals who once thought of themselves as important providers for their families, but when confronted with persisting unemployment found themselves evicted from their homes, their credit rejected, and prospects for improvement dim. If these individuals and their friends were accustomed to thinking of poor people as responsible for their circumstances, then they found themselves condemned by their own categories of thought. Faced with humiliation and a lack of connection with groups who might ease their self-doubts, such individuals might commit anomic suicide.Durkheim's final category of suicide,fatalistic,is relegated to a footnote. This type of suicide occurred within tightly knit groups whose members sought, but could not attain, escape, whose "futures are pitilessly blocked and passions violently choked by oppressive discipline" (Durkheim 1951, p. 276). Prisoners of war or slaves who were bound into distinct groups dominated by other groups might commit suicide in order to escape group membership or to demonstrate control over their lives.Suicideconcludes by moving from what had been a taxonomy of suicide types toward an explanation of how social, political, and economic forces produced those types. For instance, Durkheim explored links between suicide and urbanization, developing how cities atomize individuals, producing egoistic suicides.Sociologists admire Durkheim's book for a variety of reasons. Not only does the work present a clear understanding of what a sociological perspective was and how it differed from the perspectives offered by other emerging academic disciplines, it provides a clear and well-documented argument advocating the practical value of that discipline's perspective. Durkheim's reliance on statistics for calculating and comparing suicide rates was innovative for the time, as was his realization that the effects of some variables had to be controlled. Although he recognized problems in the comparability of data drawn from different regions or within one region in different periods, his work contributed to an emerging body of scholarship in comparative historical sociology.Several sociological studies have been conducted in the century sinceSuicide's original publication, and while some have qualified Durkheim's observations, none has seriously challenged his overall approach or conclusions. While his earlier work contains some optimism about the potentially liberating effects of industrialization and urbanization, it also reveals concerns for disruptions caused by change that occurs too rapidly. As time went on, Durkheim saw these strains become more frequent and troubling. The Dreyfus affair led him to doubt the hearts and consciences of the French citizenry, and the outbreak of World War I revealed how destructive the potentially liberating forces of industrialization can be. The war claimed the life of his only son and intellectual heir in late 1915, a blow from which Durkheim never recovered. He died in 1917, his writing having shifted from scientific objectivity to the study of ethics.

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Defined suicide as the act of severing social relationships. Goal was to show that an individual act is actually the result of the social world that he would show the usefulness of sociology. He explored the differing suicide rates among Protestants and Catholics. He explained how socially controlled Catholics had a lower suicide rate. Social integration: the integration of a group of people into the mainstream of society. Said that abnormally high or low levels or social integration may result in increased suicide rates. Results he found include: Suicide rates are higher for widowed, single or divorced people rather than those who are married. Rates are higher for those who have no children rather than those who do . Rates are higher among Protestants than Catholics. Coroners in a Catholic country are less likely to record a suicide as the reason of death because in Catholism it is a sin. Suicide may be caused by weak social bonds. Social bond is made up of social integration and social regulation. Distinguished 4 types of suicide: 1) Egoistic Suicide: Individual is weakly integrated into a society so ending their life will have little impact on the rest of society. 2) Altruistic suicide: Individual is extremely attached to the society and because of this has no life of their own. 3) Anomic suicide: There is a weak social regulation between societys norms and the individual and is most often brought on by dramatic economic or social changes. 4) Fatalistic suicide: Social regulation is completely instilled in the individual. There is no hope of change against the oppressive discipline of the society. Feels that the only way to escape this state is suicide.