Suicide

Suicide

Durkheim’s book suicide (1897) is cited as a monumental landmark of the synthesis of conceptual theory and empirical research. He used the method of statistical analysis displaying sociological realism. This method had two particular objectives in views.

1. To refute theorise based on psychology , biology , genetics climatic and geographical factors .
2. To support with empirical evidence his own sociological explanation of suicide .

Thus the phenomena of suicide demonstrates the function of sociological theirs in empirical science.

Causes of suicide :

Durkheim rejected extra social factors in the causation of suicide. The extra factors include heredity, climate , race and mental factors such as alienation . According to Durkheim, the causation of suicide should be referred to social structure and it’s ramifying functions. These may perform three function :a inducement b. Perpetuation and c. Aggravation of the suicide potential . The personal and psycho -analytical theories are similarly disposed of by .Durkheim .As a matter of fact the psychological and personal factors are the resultant of social conditions and not vice versa. The indifferences, hostility ,aggression and hatred are also the response to social condition rather than being stimulator of social change .In cutting forward his views on suicide ,Durkheim emphasizes the pivotal role that society plays in the life of the individuals.

              According to him ,it is the social circumstances and the influence of the collective consciousness which are in the main ,responsible for the phenomenon of suicide .He says , “suicide is an act which society disapproves of expiation “ Durkheim also showed that prevailing social condition and mirror ,the collective consciousness .All the alleged causes of suicide except Durkheim

              Durkheim, for example, has found a high suicide rate among the persons living in a state of “abnormal” marital status. Disintegrative   influence  of a disorganised family group. A well-knit family group, he contends, exerts a wholesome and integrative influence upon its members and checks the development of any feeling in favour of committing suicide. This is not because of any magical influence of the marriage, state or of the family, but because of the cohesive character of any intimate and closely knit social group that exerts its constant pressure upon its members to guard against any reckless distaste for life.” That is why. according to Durkheim. men who have never enjoyed the affectional aspect of marriage (the single), or those who have once enjoyed and lost it (the widowed and divorced), tend to commit suicide much more  frequently than those whose contact with the family group is intimate, wholesome and unbroken.” A similar explanation is given by Durkheim in respect of religion in checking the suicide rate. This checking influence of religion, says he, is neither because of the religious concepts themselves, nor because of the widely accepted religious belief that self-destruction is sinful and religiously forbidden. It is rather because “the religious life is the eminent form and the concentrated expression of the whole collective life.” Religion through its varied beliefs, traditions and practices exerts a compelling. regulatory and obligatory influence over the individuals, besides integrating them into one single moral community. With the stronger nature of these regulatory beliefs and practices, the solidarity and integrity of social life increases and the incidences of suicide decreases. In an opposite case, the individuals are more apt to be demoralised and prone to commit suicide. The Protestant Church, for example, lacks an internal solidarity, and, as such, has no institutional device to check its members effectively against suicide. In the orthodox Catholic and Jewish faiths, on the contrary, this solidarity is their most basic feature and, therefore, a lesser number of suicides is found among them.

Durkheim analyses suicide under three general headings:

     (1)  Egoistic,

     (2)  Altruistic.

      (3)  Anomique, and  

      (4) Fatalistic

1. Egoistic Suicide

Durkheim infers that an important type of suicide (egoistic) is caused by an insufficient participation by the individual in the life of a group. This type of suicide occurs when an individual feels himself too much isolated from the social group. This situation takes place when the integration of the individual with his social group is much disturbed or when the internal cohesiveness of sufficient intensity is not maintained within a group. The individual in himself a monumental landmark of  ne synthesis of conceptual theory and empirical research. He used the neighed of statistical analysis displaying sociological realism. This method bad two particular objectives in views: is of little value, and what he derives from participation in a social group can give purpose and significance to his private existence. Under such a situation every individual is over busy in his own way, and cares for none; so much so that some individuals feel isolated, slighted, hurt and ignored, and, therefore. Commit  suicide finally to save themselves from such a state of isolated life. For this reason, the single and the divorced persons, who are unable to enjoy the affectional   bonds of family life, and, therefore, feel isolated are more liable to commit suicide than the married people. Our modern society, characterised by impersonal, self-centred, and secondary associations and control, leaves the individual socially isolated, and entirely cut-off from the normal contacts of intimate, personal and primary group life. This is why, no doubt, a great many suicides in modern society are a result of this situation Durkheim comments on this situation in modern society as follows: Suicide varies in inverse ratio to the degree of integration of the social groups of which the individual is a part.” In other words, “suicide is both a concomitant of an index to the relative degree of social disorganization in modern society.”   An organised and integrated society places certain duties for the individual members to perform, and regulates their behaviour through certain rules and procedures.

Every individual works under the regulative pressure of these rules and procedures, and, normally, cannot go against them, because they are the collective representations of the group itself. But, in a disorganised and disintegrated society, lacking in internal cohesiveness, the state of affairs is just the opposite. Every individual is free to plan and act according to his own caprice, and is guided by his individual wishes and interests. He may even take law in his own hands, and imay go to any extent to violate the social codes. At a later stage. he finds to develop an attitude of carelessness not only towards his group, but also towards his own life itself. Thus, a disorganised society lays the foundation of personal disorganization in that degree which ultimately ends in suicide.”

2. Altruistic Suicide:

This type of suicide occurs when the integration of the individual and The group is too close and intimate. So much so that he is controlled completely by the group without any regard for his personality or individuality. He is only a member of his group, and nothing more; and, therefore, can be called upon to sacrifice even his life, whenever required, for the sake of the group. On Moral ground, its justification is that it is taking of one’s life for the sake of a Canes. Psychologically, it is based on the individual’s sense of duty to sacrifice himself for the sake of larger social unity. In short, self-destruction is caused under the pressure of social need, or moral codes. Among the members  of primitive groups, the pressure of moral codes combined with the psychology of duty is so powerful that people commit suicide mechanically -So easalmost casually. Men and women who are old and invalid, women Husband are dead, men or women who disgrace the group through the socially designated for altruistic Orca option of curtain group morals Type of suicide.

3. Anomique Suicide:

Another important type of suicide has been described by Durkheim as “Suicide anomique Sudden break-down of the social equilibrium, such as arises from sudden business depressions, inflations, etc. Suicides after bankruptcics or after winning a Lottery. Are examples of this type. It follows, therefore, that such suicides are only conditioned by some sudden disastrous change in the life of an Individual, but can His life. The impoverishment per se or, in other words, increase of poverty, is Not an adequate explanation of such suicides, because the rate of suicide Increases not only in case of severe break in the equilibrium caused by sudden impoverishment, but also when caused by prosperity. The important fact to be Noted in this connection is that many persons are unable to adjust themselves To, such sudden and violent changes in their life organization, whether the Change is towards a happy, or an unhappy, direction Under such Circumstances. Says Durkheim, “suicide anomique” solves their personal dilemma.” Since the individual has no way of restraining the unlimited propensities, This must be done by some force exterior to him. Social desires can be regulated only by a moral force. Durkheim views the collective order as the only legitimate moral force that can effectively restrain the social and moral needs either directly and as a whole, or through the agency of one of its organs, society alone can play this moderating role; for it is the only moral power superior to the individual, the authority of which he accepts.”

However, occasionally this mechanism breaks down and formlessness Ensues. Durkheim writes : “But when society is disturbed by some painful crisis or by beneficent but abrupt transitions, it is momentarily incapable of Exercising this influence; thence come the sudden rise in the curve of suicides In case of economic disasters, indeed, something likes a de-classification occurs which suddenly casts certain individuals into a lower state than their previous one. Then they must reduce their requirements, restrain their needs, earn greater self-control. All the advantages of social influence are lost so far as they are concerned; their moral education has to be recommended. But Society cannot adjust them instantaneously to this new life and teach them to practise the increased self-repression to which they are unaccustomed. So they are not adjusted to the condition forced upon them, and it’s very prospect is intolerable; hence the suffering which detaches them from a reduced existence even before they have made trial of it.

In short, Durkheim conceived of anomie as a social condition of Formlessness or the de-regulation of normative structure, that is the failure of the collective moral order to restrain the overweening ambition, greed and unlimited aspirations.

4. Fatalistic Suicide:

There is a little mentioned fourth type of suicide-fatalistic-that Durkheim discussed only in a footnote of suicide. Durkheim stated that whereas anomic suicide is more likely to occur in situations in which regulation is too weak, fatalistic suicide is more likely to occur when regulation is excessive. Durkheim described those who are more likely to commit fatalistic suicide as “persons with Futures pitilessly blocked and passions violently choked by Oppressive discipline”. As a Durkheim cited the suicide of slaves who, seeing no alternative to Enslavement under the master, takes their own lives.

In brief Durkheim put forward three concepts making up a Social theory of suicide: egoistic, altruistic, and anomie. The first two suicides, egoistic and altruistic, explain suicide by looking at the framework of social attachment to society which Durkheim called social integration. The third concept, anomic suicide, on the Other hand, belongs to framework which explains suicide by looking at the changes in the regulatory mechanism of society Egoistic suicide results from the lack of integration of the individual into his social group. The first type of suicide occurs due to overdeveloped Individualism, while second is due to a lack of Development at the level of individual. Anomic suicide, in contrast, Cars because of the reduction of the regulatory mechanism of society in fact, fatalistic suicide has little relevance in the real world. in this study, Dckheim displayed an extreme form of sociological realism.