Concept Of Anomie

In the following essay it will be discussed the concept of anomie, the word which as portrayed by Besnard, P. (1988) as one of the only - if not the only word ‘specific to sociology’ from different perspectives including things such as when the term first came into use as well as how the concept evolved and possibly changed throughout time as demonstrated by different sociologists and philosophers including: Jean-Marie Guyau, Emile Durkheim and Robert Merton.

The first concept of anomie discussed in this essay will be the one as presented by the French philosopher and sociologist Jean - Marie Guyau. (Orru, M. 1983). It is important to start with Jean - Marie Guyau as not only is a known philosopher and sociologist but also because he is the

His ideas and concepts of anomie have become to such an extent that some may as well in error state that he was the first to invent and/or develop the concept which as we have seen above is not the case. (Orru, M 1983). In that light there have been many academic writings taking approach to different aspects of his concepts of anomie. For instance, Dohrenwend B (1959) goes to describe and portray Durkheim’s concept of anomie as ‘dazzling’ and further explaining how perhaps his other accompanying concepts such as egoism and altruism as well as fatalism became perhaps overshadowed. Durkheim’s concept of anomie as explained by Dohrenwend B (1959) is shown and depicted as a ‘deregulation state in the social aggregate,’ which is the opposition of his fatalism concept characterised as ‘a condition of the social aggregate in which there is “excessive regulation” and oppressive discipline.”’ It is further shown that in contrast with two of his concepts; altruism and egoism; is also a state of “declassification” in which he states that as all of the social influence advantages are lost, what has to happen is for education to be recommended as with the ‘appetite’ and hunger for knowledge increases as people are more free to express their true passions, as a result creating more competition and

(1988) through his journal article also highlights, from his perspective the error some academics and researchers make when interpreting Durkheim's anomie concept by grouping it and aligning it with his alienation concept, which although he personally finds wrong as he states that they are not only very difference approaches, but one would find them being quite the opposite. However, he does express his understanding as to why such thing would happen, due to the irregularity in which the anomie chapter is written as towards the end Durkheim wrote about alienation in the workplace, causing confusion amongst readers. Besnard, P (1988) also portrays the existence of anomie in Durkheim’s work on Suicide and highlights that in order for anomie to be defined and understood a differentiation between the concept in question and any other type of suicide has to take place, in particular between egoism or anything that would be the same between the dimensions of regulation and