Suicide,   ISBN:9780684836324

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Given the academic traditions which prevailed at the time, European scholars were commonly forced to be thorough to a fault, covering a lot of non-essential material and making for excruciatingly long reads. With Durkheim's Suicide, if you begin with chapter 4, social causes and social types, you'll be able to read a masterpiece of sociological reasoning. The most conspicuous concepts in his analysis, anomie (cultural deregulation) and egoism (social deracination), are applicable to a broad range of social phenomena in a wide variety of settings. In modest empirical pieces I've used them to help explain variability in teen pregnancy, early teen pregnancy, dropping out, crime on school property, and reckless behavior among adolescents.

As with today, Durkheim lived in a world that was becoming more complex, rendering values and norms relative, and tearing apart extended families, neighborhoods, communities, and other groups that provided social support. Durkheim surmised that in the absence of normative stability and a strong sense of belonging, people felt socially and culturally lost, devoid of guidance and support. As a result, they became depressed, anxious, and more likely to commit suicide. Within the methodological limitations of the late nineteenth century, he thoroughly researched his thesis and found compelling empirical evidence to support it.

Today, much is made of the archaic nature of Durkheim's research methods and the likelihood that his findings were compromised by the ecological fallacy, making untenable inferences about individuals from group data. In my view, however, his seminal concepts, though often misrepresented and misunderstood, have proved priceless in understanding our socially and culturally chaotic world and explaining why some of us commit ourselves so completely to causes and organizations that seem absurd and sometimes broadly dangerous. The same concepts continue to explain variability in suicide rates from time to time and place to place.

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My boyfriend completed suicide four months ago. I have purchased almost every book here on Amazon regarding suicide. I was tormented by the "whys, what ifs, if only" day and night. Needless to say, I am desperately in need of finding answers to comfort me, and to make a little sense of my boyfriend's suicide.
I finished this book feeling confused. I do not need to read all the statistic, and cultural backgrounds, I am not a researcher. I need answers that can help me coping with this incredible lost. Sorry, but this book is completely useless to me.
I would high recommend the other books "Why do people die by suicide" and "nights fall fast" Those are the two great books help me the most.

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Suicide is as old a phenomenon as is murder or thievery. It has been looked down on as a criminal act requiring punishment in order to thwart additional acts. In 452, the Council of Arles declared suicide a crime to result in the culprit going to hell. This was followed in 563 by the Council of Prague declaring that in addition to going to hell one would also be forbidden from having any religious memorial during one's funeral. In addition, civil legislation followed with penalties resulting in one's possessions reverting to the lord or baron of the estate rather than to any natural heirs. They went to great lengths in their efforts to eliminate or reduce suicide by torturing the bodies of those who committed suicide. They would hang corpses in the town square or drag it through the streets. These actions were no doubt in frustration concerning their inability to not only understand suicide but also their failed attempts to control it.

Durkheim's study into suicide discovered that suicide is not a criminal act nor is it an individual phenomenon but rather it is a problem associated with our collective conscience or what we term society. The study by Durkheim has had additional benefits other than an understanding of suicide. These would be the methods used by Durkheim for this study as well as to propel sociology to a greater degree of acceptability.

Durkheim's style in this book is similar to that used by Michel Foucault in his series about the sexuality. They both offer hypothesis after hypothesis only to discredit them completely or partially resulting in new hypotheses. Durkheim continues this process until one has no other option but to conclude that he has successfully proved his hypothesis that society is the cause of suicide and that suicide is not only a negative phenomenon but a necessary one. The way in which Durkheim explains this strange required negativity, I would correlate to the unemployment levels in our modern capitalistic societies in that we can never expect to reach a level of complete employment.

Durkheim's contributions to the methods of research used by future social scientists concentrate on the correlation of data to prove causation. He was meticulous in amassing a vast amount of raw data to analysis but he also discussed the limits of the data analyses. This would have implications for future sociologists in that they would be expected to uphold the standards set by Durkheim. Concerning suicide, the problem with data would hem not only on the definition of suicide but also on the unknown instances of the act of suicide. Durkheim defined suicide as, "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" (p.44). This definition, however, has some validity issues. How would Durkheim view a soldier during war who rushes into the enemies line of fire knowing full well that he will be killed but if he fails to act in this situation many of his comrades will be killed? According to Durkheim, this situation would be considered a suicide. Many would disagree but Durkheim addresses this by defining three forms of suicide.

Three forms of suicide: Egoistic, Altruistic, and Anomic. Egoistic results from a lack of integration into society. The more individualist one is the greater the risk for suicide. Durkheim feels that society as a whole is moving towards a more individualistic society resulting in increases in egoistic suicide rates. The second form, altruistic, goes against the rule of egoistic suicide in that the degree of social integration is irrelevant. Suicide is committed for the greater good of society so the greater one's connection and commitment to society the greater risk of committing the act. This, however, is a form of suicide usually found only in tribal or lower societies. Suicide takes the form of ritual or sacrifice. This form is also found in the modern army in the form of the example of a soldier committing suicide to save his comrades. The final form, anomic, is correlated to the degree that one is upset with one's environment. This usually occurs during a divorce, loss of a job, winning the lottery, or discovering devastating truths or fallacies. The point here is that the individual is removed from their group in physicality, social status, etc. The supporting infrastructure is upset and one is left to fend for oneself. This can be evidenced by stockbrokers jumping to their death during the crash of 1929 or the lottery winners today attempting suicide. Durkheim does point out that one of the greatest protections from suicide is being poor.

The book is a very difficult read with an almost endless amount of facts and figures resulting in what is termed paralysis by analysis to the general layman BUT as a student of Sociology it is necessary in order to prove his hypothesis.

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This book is helpful to understand how suicide happens to people and understanding that there is nothing you can do to catch it, you realize its not your fault.

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This is still considered the first book on sociological theory. Not only does Durkheim provide us with a working model to use social statistics to draw very strong inference but if one reads carefully between the lines, he provides us with theoretical rhetoric as well as the afore-mentioned practical design. Durkheim was overall pessimistic; he saw the forces of society as overwhelming to the individual and makes little or no provision for escape (unlike Marx). Suicide, in Durkheim's view, was merely a symptom of a greater sociological ill. But unlike those who had come before him, Durkheim based his sociological assertions on solid empirical evidence and helped create an entire new science, which like the "hard" sciences, was based on the collection of data and research. Next time you read a report which links household income to education attainment, or prison rates among African Americans to a never-ending drug war, remember Emile Durkheim. He was first.