Types of Suicide

According to “Emile Durkheim”, any voluntary act of individual, which results in his death, despite being aware the effect of the act, is known as suicide. Durkheim explained four types of suicide in his book “suicide”, published in, 1897. Which are as follow, egoistic suicide, altruistic suicide, anomic suicide and fatalistic suicide.

Egoistic Suicide

When individual do not have strong ties with the society or is not connected and associated with the group or society; in such circumstances the probability of committing suicide by individual is higher. Suicide committed by individual due to lack of social cohesion is termed by, Durkheim as, “egoistic suicide”. This type of suicide mostly occur in modern or urban societies because such societies lack social solidarity. Furthermore, individuals who are unmarried or non-believer have high rate of committing egoistic suicide because such individuals have low social cohesion. People who are believers and married have strong ties with society have low rate egoistic suicide.

Anomic Suicide

Human beings differ from every other animal because, they can never be satisfied with what they possess. According to Durkheim, the limits of desires are not provided to human beings by, biological makeup. However, there is a solution for this phenomenon, those limits are provided by society in the shape of norms and regulation, which is imprinted by society in our mind that, we should limit our desires according to our means. Norms and regulations guide individuals, what they hope to achieve and what they should abandon, for the reason that, it is not realistically obtainable. However, in modern society this mechanism does not work the way it should, there is absence of those rules and regulation which guide individuals to limit their desires, according to their means, this situation is called by Durkheim anomie. In modern society when economic conditions become volatile; rich people lose their money overnight and the poor people become very rich all of the sudden, in such circumstances people do not internalize any limits. They become dissatisfied beyond repair, which leads to committing suicide. This type of suicide is called by Durkheim, anomic suicide.

Altruistic Suicide

This type of suicide occur in a society, where social cohesion or social solidarity is very high. Individual of a group do not think beyond the group interest. Life and ideas of the individuals do not hold any meaning. In such social setting individual give his life for group interest or norms which is termed by Durkheim as altruistic suicide. The example of altruistic suicide is soldiers dying in war, ritual of sati; in which wife is burned alive with her husband dead body and suicide bombing of radical groups.

Fatalistic Suicide

Such type of suicide occurs in a society where regulation are very intense. Example of fatalistic suicide existed in primitive society where salve was supposed to kill himself when his master dies.

By Khushdil Khan Kasi

The post Types of Suicide appeared first on Sociology Learners.

Emile Durkheim got curious about the high rate of suicide in Denmark. He wondered why Denmark have such a high rate of suicide compare to England and France. To find out the answer behind his curiosity, he considered social factor which might influence the behavior of individual to commit suicide. Those social factor are given below; 
• Level of solidarity and cohesiveness in society

• Individual standing within a society

• Individual position in religious, social and occupational group

Durkheim identified that, suicide is committed by individual but the reason behind this act is hidden in the social life and group of the individual.

Findings of Durkheim Research

Findings of Durkheim research was based on correlation between some social factor and suicide rate such as, there is relationship between being married or single with suicide rate, people economic position and suicide rate and occupation of people and suicide rate. Detailed findings of Emile Durkheim research on suicide are given below.

Integration

The connectedness of individual with a group is called integration. The more individual is connected, loved and wanted by a group the lower is the chances of committing suicide. Individual who are not wanted or associated with a group, higher the chances of committing suicide.

Religion

Individual who is not affiliated with any religion, has a higher probability of committing suicide. According to Durkheim finding Protestants have high rate committing suicide compare to Jews and Catholics

Marriage

Individual who is not married or single has a higher rate of committing suicide compare to the married individual. Because married individual is more connected and integrated with group than single individual.

Military

Soldiers have higher rate of committing suicide compare to civilians.

Economy

When the economic conditions of a country is unstable there is higher chance of committing suicide by individual compare to the time of prosperity.

Peace and War

The probability of committing suicide in the time of peace is higher than in the time of war.

Wealth

Individuals who are wealthy have higher probability of committing suicide than middle class and lower class individuals.

Sex/Gender

Males have higher rate of suicide compare to females.

Race

The rate of committing suicide in white people are higher than colored people.

The post Durkheim Research on Suicide appeared first on Sociology Learners.

“Emile Durkheim” belonged to the structural-functional school of thought. He was interested in the study of social structure and its functions. How different part of society function and contribute to the functioning of society as whole. He believed that social solidarity is the main element which hold society together. Social solidarity is the feeling of unity among individuals with one another and with society or what makes society solid, viable and hold it together. He explained solidarity in two different type of societies. He says that, mechanical solidarity exist in a societies which has simple social structure like rural society. Whereas organic solidarity exist in the society which has complex social structure like urban society.

Mechanical Solidarity

According to “Emile Durkheim”, traditional societies or rural societies has mechanical solidarity. Individuals bond together in traditional society by the homogeneity. The division of labor is very slight in this type of society. Individual almost have similar skill sets and have similar job responsibilities. In traditional society individuals earn their livelihood from agriculture and in agriculture societies there is very low division of labor almost every individual is peasant. Moreover, people of rural society share similar religion, culture, norms, believes and values. Due to the homogeneity they are connected with one another and society, which is characterized by, “Emile Durkheim” as mechanical solidarity. Mechanical solidarity is based on the sameness of people living in a society. Emile Durkheim built an analogy which compare a society with a machine or a series of machines which are manufactured similarly. Suppose if there is a problem in a part of machine because of which machine is not working. It can be replaced by the same part of other machine and it will start working again. By this analogy Durkheim was trying to prove that, traditional or rural societies are held together by homogeneity.

Organic Solidarity

Emile Durkheim believed that, modern industrial societies has organic solidarity. Individuals in modern bond together by heterogeneity. In urban society division of labor is very high; every individual possess different skill set or specialization. Moreover, individuals dissimilar, religion, believes, values norm and culture. So the logic dictated question arises here that, what hold them together? The answer is interdependence. Individuals in urban society are dependent on each other because of high division of labor, they trade their skills with one another which connects them with each other. Suppose if someone need legal assistance he will hire a lawyer, if someone car is broke he will go to mechanic for repair and if someone need hair cut he will go to barber. Individuals in urban society rely on each other that is what unify them. Emile Durkheim compared modern societies with organism, which are composed of multiple organ and each organ has its specialized function, organism is healthy if each part or organ perform its function. Similarly, modern society are composed of multiple institutions and each has its own specialized function if each individual and institution perform its function then it will result in healthy society.

By Khushdil Khan Kasi

The post Mechanical and Organic Solidarity appeared first on Sociology Learners.

Social Solidarity is how individuals feel connected and united with one another and to the society as whole. According to Emile Durkheim, social solidarity is based on, “social regulation” and “social integration”. Social regulation is based on three components, 1) number of rules; which individuals have to follow in the society it can be social, cultural and legal rules, 2) Enforcement of rules; how strictly are those rules enforced by society 3) and Predictability of life; which is connected to the second component of social regulation, individuals might think that, how rigorously they will be punished if they violate the rules and how they will be rewarded if they follow the rules. Emile Durkheim believed that, social regulation is important for the strength of society and health of individuals living in a society. Social Integration is based on two component:

1) how associated individuals feel to the society and with their fellow beings in a society

2) and how often an individual interact with other individuals in a society.

Moreover, Emile Durkheim defined two types of solidarity mechanical and organic solidarity. Traditional societies are held together by mechanical solidarity and urban societies are held together by organic solidarity.

The post Social Solidarity appeared first on Sociology Learners.

“Emile Durkheim” is amongst one of the important social thinker, in the field of sociology, who laid the foundation of the discipline and considered as, father of modern sociology. Initiating a new academic discipline is a challenging and difficult task. The First step in this process is to define sociology. According to “Emile Durkheim” sociology is the study of “social facts”. The logical question arises here that, what is social fact? Durkheim says that, social facts should be study as things. Those things which influence, shape and mold the behavior of individuals in a society. By things, Durkheim meant that, social things not physical things. Social facts are the social forces which are created by the people consciously themselves, like culture, norms, values and beliefs. These social forces influence the behavior, actions and lives of individuals in the society.

“Emile Durkheim” believed that, social fact is developed from the collective of individuals or group not by individual. Therefore, society should be studied in term of group and should not be reduced to the level of individual. Furthermore, he says that, if researcher want to obtain sociological knowledge by the mean of, positivist approach or scientific method, he should not study society in term of individual but it should be studied as group.

According to “Emile Durkheim”, society is composed of integration of social facts. He was interested in determining, what keeps and holds social facts together. Therefore, he developed a theory of “collective consciousness” which states that society is held together by shared beliefs, value, norms and ideas. Individuals internalize, norms and values from society and act accordingly in a society.

By Khushdil Khan Kasi

The post Social Fact appeared first on Sociology Learners.