Free Book Review Sample on Emile Durkheim's "On Suicide"

Introduction

In 1897, the French sociologist Emile Durkheim wrote his book "On Suicide," a case study of the concept of suicide and how social aspects contribute to suicide cases among the population (Zhang, 2019). Durkheim's research was unique because it provided a different explanation for why individuals commit suicide apart from the psychological reason. At the time, many doctors and psychologists thought the main reasons someone could commit suicide were psychological. Durkheim defines suicide as "all classes of deaths resulting directly or indirectly from the positive or the negative acts of the victim itself who knows the result they produce" (Sun, 2020: 431). The paper is an analysis of Emile Durkheim's study on the causes of suicide, its strengths, its limitations, and its significance in understanding suicide by other professionals in the field and the society.

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Durkheim’s Study of Suicide

Emile Durkheim conducted a methodological study on suicide using statistical data collected from numerous countries in Europe at that time by other scientists and people researching suicide (Condorelli, 2016). From his analysis, Durkheim claims that suicide results from the social bonds between an individual and the society breaking, leaving the person with no other option but to take their own life. He supports his theory using the analyzed data collected, focusing on the suicide rates among individuals from various social groupings and demographics.

From his analysis, Durkheim found out that in terms of religious belief, there more rates of suicide among Protestants than among those in the social category of Catholics (Condorelli, 2016). On gender, there were more rates of men committing suicide than the number of women. More unmarried individuals commit suicide than individuals who were married. The rate of individuals who commit suicide who have no children was higher than those with children (Condorelli, 2016). Basing on occupation, the number of soldiers who committed suicide was higher than the number of civilians committing suicide. During peace, there were more suicide cases than when there were significant crises like war.

Durkheim’s Theory of Suicide

After analyzing the data, Durkheim develops a theoretical framework of why people commit suicide based on his interpretation of the different social categories. Basing on his studies, Durkheim's theory on suicide claims that an individual takes their own life not because it tit their own choice to act that way but rather it is a result of some other power that rules over them (Sun, 2020). According to Durkheim, individuals commit suicide as a result of two forces that influence them to sacrifice their life, social integration and social regulation. Lack of social integration and regulation impacts the chance of an individual committing suicide because when the bonds holding individuals together break, they are isolated from the rest in society.

When social factors, social integration, and social regulation break, the individual loses his / her control resulting in higher chances of committing suicide (Lempert, 2018). Hence, the rate of suicides in society correlates with the variations in the social institutions, which play a vital role in integrating and regulating the actions taken by an individual (Sun, 2020). When there are no stable social institutions, the rate of individuals committing suicide in that society will be high compared to a community that has strong and stable social institutions.

Types of Suicide

Durkheim claims that suicide, therefore, occurs in four different ways because of the level of destruction on the two social factors, social regulation and integration.

Altruistic Suicide

According to Durkheim, when individuals are under a lot of social regulation, they are likely to commit suicide to further the needs of the society in which they live (McCartan, 2017). When people belong to a specific group in society, they tend to follow that group's purpose and go out of their way to fulfill their obligations to that group. Because the individual is exceptionally integrated, they follow whatever the group demands, even giving their own life (McCartan, 2017). Durkheim's argument has merit because even today's society, people choose to commit suicide in this context; the individuals choose to die for what they believe is right. For example, those who commit suicide bombings because they are integrated into the organization feel they have to act that way for their society.

Fatalistic Suicide

According to Durkheim, fatalistic suicide results from oppressive social regulations that an individual feels he/ she cannot continue to exist. When individuals feel the society they live in does not allow them to express their feelings and restricts them from self-actualization, they opt to commit suicide to be free from such oppression (McCartan, 2017). Durkheim contradicts his claim that this kind of suicide exists in modern society when he says that this type of suicide is scarce in society since no community is extremely over-regulated. This contradiction weakens his argument about this type of suicide because if it rarely occurs in society, then the data he uses to support its existence could not be reliable.

Egoistic Suicide

When individuals feel they do not belong to a particular group in society, they tend to disconnect from the rest of the group. This sense of not belonging results from little or no social cohesion between the individuals and their group (Condorelli, 2016:374). Individuals who lose their self-worth and identification in their society tend to choose to take their own life to escape this feeling. Losing social integration with family members and peers can lead to an individual taking their own life (Condorelli, 2016:374). For example, an individual suffering from AIDS in a society where they shun those with the disease will lose social cohesion with the rest of the individuals; such isolation may lead to the individual taking their own life.

Anomic Suicide

The lack of social direction and regulation in times of social and economic changes in the individual's life can result in the individual committing suicide (Lempert, 2018). Durkheim identified various forms of disconnection that individuals experience due to social institutions' changes, economic disconnection, or domestic disconnection/ anomy. Durkheim claims these types of disconnection result in the individual deciding to take their own life. Durkheim's argument in this type of suicide is weak; his argument does not provide a clear explanation of how the sudden change of economic or domestic status results in suicide. In society, a positive change in economic status rarely results in an individual committing suicide. Internal and external influences can result in the individual taking some negative actions that play a role in the decision an individual makes in their life.

Limitations of Durkheim’s Study of Suicide

The first limitation of Durkheim's study is his choice not to acknowledge that there are other influences apart from social factors that a role in deciding a person takes to commit suicide (Condorelli, 2016). In trying to understand why people commit suicide, one cannot ignore the psychological explanations which play a vital role in such a crucial role in the decision. Both psychological and social factors play a role in the people committing suicide, and emphasis should be placed on both of them when studying why people take their own lives. Individual explanations of suicide are as crucial as other factors contributing to their occurrence (Lempert, 2016). Variables such as depression, which is psychological, play an essential role in influencing the individual into committing suicide, and Durkheims decision to ignore it makes this study biased

The second limitation of Durkheim's study of suicide is its overemphasis on religion as the leading force influencing an individual to commit suicide. Lack of strong religious affiliation alone cannot cause people to commit suicide even though it plays a specific part in influencing this decision in people. In Halbwachs (1930), there is criticism of how Durkheim overemphasizes the role of religion in his study while at the same time ignoring other important factors that play in a person's decision to commit suicide (Condorelli, 2016). Overemphasizing religion as the primary social reason people commit based on a few individuals does not accurately represent the factors influencing an individual to commit suicide (Condorelli, 2016).

The third limitation of Durkheim's study is the reliability and validity of the data he uses for his analysis. After collecting information on the rates of suicides among the population from different areas in Europe, Emile Durkheim fails to determine whether the data he is using is reliable; he uses the data from other research conducted by other individuals. Durkheim fails to consider how interpretations and reconciliations of the data led to the individual determining whether death resulted from suicide or not (Condorelli, 2016). In statistics, when the data used for a study is unreliable, it tends to provide misleading explanations of the concept of suicide.

Significance of the Study

Despite these limitations, the study has helped many develop more elaborate theories that try to explain the concept of suicide in society. Durkheim was the first sociologist to take the initiative to try and explain the complexity of suicide using social factors as contributors to people taking their own life. According to Zhang (2019), the work by Emile Durkheim provides a framework for the development of sociological studies by other individuals in the field. This study has allowed other sociologists to start using empirical studies to understand individuals' actions in society. Durkheim's study on social influences has an impact on the thoughts of an individual in teaching and learning sociology in modern society.

Durkheim's work is crucial because it offers a different explanation apart from the psychologist, explaining that many studies explain suicide. Not all cases of suicide are a result of psychological problems; some of the cases are a result of social factors that influence individuals to take an act of committing suicide (Zhang, 2019). Through his study, Durkheim can provide a way for society to handle the cases of suicide among individuals. Understanding how social factors result in suicide cases helps develop social solutions that can help reduce the rates of suicide among individuals.

Conclusion

Emile Durkheim's study of how social factors play a vital role in people committing suicide in "On Suicide" provides a sociological approach to understanding suicide. Knowledge of how internal influences (psychological factors) and external influences (social factors) contribute to the increase in suicide rates helps develop strategies to tackle this problem. By outlining the social causes in his study, Durkheim offers a different approach to how experts in sociology can create comprehensive studies to help understand suicide by combining studies in psychological and social influences.

References

Condorelli, Rosalia. 2016. "Social complexity, modernity and suicide: an assessment of Durkheim's suicide from the perspective of a non-linear analysis of complex social systems." SpringerPlus 5.1: 374.

Lempert, David. 2018. "The Psychology of Cultural Suicide and Cultural Change." Journal of Globalization Studies 9.1:107-128.

McCartan, Delaney. 2017. "A Thematic Analysis of an Online Suicide Forum: Exploring the Relevance of Durkheim's Typology".