Critical Analysis Of Emile Durkheim's Theory Of Suicide

There are many individuals who have organized groups to stop the rise in suicide rates because it is immoral for someone to take their own life instead of letting nature take its course. However, if an individual were placed in a world where the final outcome is ultimately death and knowing that the life ahead will be gruesome and painful until that moment, their thoughts and ideals may change. For example, the mother of the boy committed suicide by shooting herself and she claimed that “sooner or later they will catch us and they will kill us. . . They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us” (56). The reason as to why she killed herself was because the world was so vile, corrupt, and atrocious that she could not bear to survive in it. She also did not want to have her last moments alive to be horrid

In his book, Suicide, Emile Durkheim explores the social reasons that would someone to commit suicide. The basis of his argument laid in his ideas of social integration and social regulation. Social regulation is the many facets in which a person can be involved with society, such as political groups, religious groups, and domestic groups. Social regulation in comparison are the social and moral rules that a society decides what is right and what is wrong. Durkheim believes that people need to find a balance within social integration and social regulation to live a healthy lifestyle. Being on either ends of the spectrum for integration or regulation can lead someone to commit suicide. What Durkheim did not do in Suicide was compare rates of suicide between racial groups. African-Americans have a consistently lower suicide rate compared to Caucasians in the United States. However, African-American males from the ages of 20 to 29 have suicide rates much closer to those of their Caucasian counterparts. Using Durkheim’s arguments in Suicide as reference, it can be argued that African-Americans as a racial group have lower suicide rates than their Caucasian counterparts because African-Americans have more sources of social integration and regulation than Caucasians. Also, African-American males between the ages of 20 and 29 have suicide rates that more closely resemble their Caucasian counterparts that specific age group

In the year 2006, a number of 3512 people in Canada commit suicide which appeared to be the lowest figure among the other years. WHY During the 2008 financial crisis, the number of suicide shows a significant increase which marked a figure of 3705 suicides in 2008 and 3890 suicides in the following year. In the year of 2009, suicide has ranked as the ninth leading cause of death in Canada as stated in the Statistics Canada. The figure of suicides continued to rise slightly in 2010 which marked a number of 3951 suicides. The lowest figure over the study period appeared to be in the year 2011 which recorded a number of 3728 suicides. According to The Canadian Press (2011), Canada’s economy was ranked at the second place among the G7 countries in the year 2011 which seems to lead to the drop in the suicides. However, it is notable that the suicides in the following two years after the improvement of Canada’s economy in 2011 experienced a significant rose which marked the figure of 3926 suicides and 4054 suicides respectively. As mentioned by Antunes (2012), the Canada’s economy in 2012 and 2013 was most likely to be muddled due to the influence of the gloomy global environment. This slowdown on the economic activity is believed to have a negative impact on suicides in the particular

Bridge- Philosophical suicide is seen as a leap of faith, a sort of giving in. If death is looked at in those terms than a philosophical murder should be similar to its suicidal counterpart. Therefor philosophical murder should be a giving in or leap of faith at which a person gives up on another and believes that it what was meant to be.

Depression is a serious mental illness that most adolescents struggle with, through their teenage years of life. Suicides rates are increasing as the years go by, especially in teens and adolescents. There are several controversial treatments and antidepressants for depression and they seem to work with teens, but not all. Allowing a teen to have an antidepressant should not be aloud because studies have shown that most teens and adolescents does not benefit them with their brain. In today’s society, doctors give teen a antidepressants and send them on their way. Giving antidepressants to teens and adolescents is not the route to go when treating depression.

Living in America, they are many cultures blended together and trying to live in harmony has always had it setbacks and upbringings. Structural functionalist attempt to provide order and cohesiveness in society. Sometimes one culture’s norm is completely opposite of another cultures norm. This is when conflict theorist sees sub-cultures different and ethnocentrism is accessing one culture standards over another. As members of society, we did not just get our beliefs from one culture, it has taken years and exposure to create our norm. As a symbolic interactionist, we take bits and pieces of culture and share the culture we create. With technology advancing as much as it has, it has even made our world smaller and exposed us to more cultures.

The concept has been widely used by sociologists since. Anome is a French word which means normlessness or a state without rules or regulations. One of Durkheim 's most famous studies was concerned with the analysis of suicide. Durkheim showed that social factors employ a fundamental influence on suicidal behaviour. Durkheim defined suicide as "every case of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive or negative act performed by the victim himself, which he knows will produce this result" (Aragwal, 2012). Anomic suicide occurs when there is lack of regulation in the society. This type of suicide is dell to a sudden breakdown of the social equilibrium such as sudden business depression. Therefore we can say that this type of suicide is triggered by disastrous change in the life of an individual. Egoistic suicide occurs when an individual feels very isolated from the social group. It results from the lack of integration of the individual into his or her social group. It is greatly seen in modern society. Altruistic suicide happens when there is excessive regulation of individuals by social forces. An example would be someone who commits suicide for the sake of a religious or political cause (Anderson & Taylor,

Firstly, he discovered that suicide rates depend on one’s integration in society, in other words, the level in which one feels accepted and connected to a group (Durkheim, 1951). Similar to Joiner’s ‘thwarted belongingness’, Durkheim says that those with a higher integration and belongingness in society have lower suicide rates than those who do not as they may feel not wanted and excluded (ibid.). However, less common but just like Joiner’s ‘perceived burdensomeness’, Durkheim states that those with very high integration also have high suicide rates. Moral regulation also plays a role in why one CS, this is because Durkheim discovered that those without a religion are more likely to CS than those who are actively in one. This is also because in some religions like Christianity, suicide is a sin. Low moral regulation is when one feels like there is no mission in life and social direction. On the other hand, high moral regulation also has an effect as everything is overregulated and hence, life becomes less rewarding (ibid.). For example, being in jail stops one from being free and every movement is controlled. Other factors that play a role are marriage where unmarried people have higher suicide rates than married people; military (linked to Joiner) where soldiers have higher rates than civilians; times of peace and war where times of peace have higher rates than times of war as war allows to put things into perspective; economic where economic instability have higher rates than prosperity; wealth where higher income have higher rates than the modest and poor; sex, as mentioned earlier, where men have higher rates than women and race where white have higher rates than African American (ibid.). Overall Durkheim’s theory has predictive powers in the fact that one can look at social and economic changes and predict

The issue of suicide has been around for quite a long time since the Middle Ages. Suicide still continues, which hasn’t disappeared, in fact, it has increased over time because due to lack of effort of attending therapy and seeking the help they need to solve

According to Emile Durkheim, there are four different types of suicide. These include: egoistic, altruistic, anomic, and fatalistic suicide. Durkheim’s main focus on studying suicide is understanding what makes a person commit suicide and the influences and factors that lead that person to carry out the act (Open College). Egoistic suicide is when an individual has low social interactions with others, they have feelings

Suicide is when someone takes their own life. It is a psychological problem, which is usually brought on by depression. The factors mentioned in this paper were abuse, drugs, and death. These are not the only factors that play a role, but these are the ones that are usually the cause. Abuse can prevent developmental growth and create relationship and trust issues. Drugs can alter the mind and prevent people from thinking logically and be a depressant. Finally death can leave someone feeling alone and guilty. Depression can be a down spiral of all these things or it can be a simple problem. When people don 't know how to handle the situation and feel they cant go to someone that 's when suicide to them

The suicidual attempts and action were incompatible with the values of a healthy and modern society as a developed city. Compared to countries outside Hong Kong, China, America, Singapore, Japan and Korean also find out the suicidal rate of elderly were also higher than any other people in different age group. Although sociologisit Emile Durkheim thinks that the suicide rates for a society typically shows a stable distribiution from year to year, there are always identification of periodic fluctuations and patterns of suicide

According to International Suicide Statistic, over one million people die by suicide worldwide each year. The global suicide rate is 16 per 100,000 population. On average, one person dies by suicide every 40 seconds somewhere in the world. Global suicide rates have increased 60% in the past 45 years. It seems that the characters found that the simplest and best way of avoiding life struggles is through suicide. This is reflected in Shakespears’ Hamlet where Hamlet, the main character were asked by his father’s ghost to seek revenge for him. Suicide can be analyzed through several perspectives mainly religion, moral and aesthetic which underlined the theme of the whole story.

Over the years the issue of suicide has been slowly increasing. It is now the third leading cause of death among young people. The effects of suicide are tragic and felt long after the individual has taken their own life. Some people who consider suicide, however, never make a “serious” attempt at it. For every attempted suicide, there is said to be more than one person whose thought of suicide has never translated into an actual attempt. Suicide prevention largely targets teenagers in hope to lower the numbers of suicides a year. Depression, anxiety and, stress are the leading causes of adolescent suicide.

In this world that we are living, someone out there must be depressed to the point that he or she would prefer to die than to deal with his or her problems. It is a waste to take one’s own life for a temporary problem. Some people would attempt to kill themselves thinking that they do not need to live in this world anymore. Suicide and attempted suicide is something that should never be neglected.