Book Critique on ‘Suicide’ Essay

Book refresh on Suicide by Emile Durkheim Nearly a century ago, the French sociologist Emile Durkheim became interested in the phenomenon of felo-de-se. Why, he asked, do sight protrude themselves? In his day, the frequent manage to such(prenominal) a question is the suicidal person is depressed or mentally affliction or has suffered an unbear equal loss. An alternative philosophic answer is also presented an individual rehearses felo-de-se because it is part of his nature. But Durkheim was non well-provided with these explanations.He thought it likely that forces at heart society influenced peoples close to kill superstarself was never simply individualised. Durkheim treasured to provide a sociological answer to the phenomenon of self-destruction. To have reveal whether his ideas were correct, Durkheim considered the explanations for self-annihilation that were common in his day and systematically assembled the separate for each. As his sources, Durkheim used government records that listed poetry of self-destructions and gave information about the people mingled their age, sex, race, religion, marital status.Upon analyzing this material, Durkheim saw that the usual explanations for self-annihilation were contradicted by the evidence. There was a superior general variance of suicide range crossways countries and time. Durkheim argued, If suicide is considered a ad hominem tell apart, why is in that respect so much variability? (Durkheim, 1897/195117). If suicide were related to mental ailment, Durkheim would father be relatively perpetual proportions of suicide and mental illness within tender groups. Durkheim found the opposite several(prenominal) groups divided high up rate of mental illness but little suicide opposite groups shargond high rates of both.Durkheim found that women were more likely to be diagnosed a mentally ill, but had less chances of committing suicide. early(a) contradictory information surface d Durkheim discovered that about people pull suicide during lukewarm periods of the year, non, as might be expected, during the st iodine-cold days of winter. These initial findings forced Durkheim to dissolve that suicide is determined by affable forces that is, forces external to the individual. Durkheim said, suicide is based on affectionate causes and is itself a collective phenomenon (Durkheim, 1897/1951145).Characteristics of the friendly group in which people find themselves make suicide more or less likely self-destruction is not simply a private act. In analyzing his information, Durkheim looked for specific social conditions under which suicide occurred the most and least oft. present were some of his findings 1) Protestants committed suicide iii clock more than Catholics and Catholics more than Jews 2) Single people committed suicide more often than married people, and married people with children least often of all 3) And, suicide rates ar higher when peop le odour few or weak ties to a social group or participation.The Jewish community was more tightly ripple than the Catholic, the Catholic more tightly crumple than the Protestant. Married individuals, especially those with children, had stronger social bonds than genius people. After identifying the general cause of high suicide rates, Durkheim classified suicide into three types 1) selfish suicide, 2) unselfish suicide, and 3) anomic suicide. Individuals with few or weak ties to a community atomic number 18 likely to commit egoistic suicide, or suicide related to social isolation and individualism.The opposite of egoistic suicide is called altruistic suicide. Here individuals whose ties to their particular groups atomic number 18 so strong that their commit suicide for the good of the group. Durkheim also saw that suicide rates increased when there were lemony stinting upturns, and decrease when there was scotch stableness. When times are stable, people smelling better integrated into the social fabric and committed to social norms. When times are stressful, the extending state of anomie leads people to commit anomic suicide.At the end of his research, Durkheim argued that sociology is a legitimate field of study (Durkheim, 1897/1951). This debate is founded on two striking facts. First, he showed that suicide tendencies can be relieveed by social facts that is, empirical statements with no psychological or philosophical hints. In essence, sociology is a field of study independent from psychology and philosophy. And second, social explanations about specific phenomenon are never inferior from other types of explanations.In essence, social explanations are sufficient to explain contradictory social facts, since the latter depends on the former for empirical validity. General Critique There are several criticisms on Durkheims research on suicide. Here are some of the criticisms 1) Durkheim defined suicide as referring to all cases of death res ulting straight or indirectly from a overconfident or contradict act of the dupe himself, which he knows will produce this result (Durkheim, 1897/195144). By positive act, Durkheim meant such things as jumping off a bridge over or shooting oneself.By negative act, he meant such things such as not taking necessary euphony or not getting out of the way of a moving vehicle. When Durkheim positive the concept of altruistic suicide, he himself committed a violation of his own operative definition. This violation constituted a stain in his research. Given his data, it is almost impracticable or difficult to find instances of altruistic suicide. One can infer that the inclusion body of this type of suicide was the result of passionate inference from data2) Some sociologists argued that Durkheim was able to delineate the difference between individualized issues and existence problems. This is not entirely true. Durkheim never gave operational definitions to both personal issue and public problem. Durkheim only assumed that personal issues are issues peculiar to personal events public issues are issues salient to the interests of a give social group. In a sense, it was Mills, not Durkheim, who formalized the distinction between personal issues and public problems3) Durkheim also ignored one important factor in his psychoanalysis of suicide the political context of the late1890s. Durkheim argued that sparing upheavals increased suicide rates, economic stability decreased suicide rate. If one closely analyzed the context of the late 1890s, one can perceive that it was not economic crisis (ups and downs of the economy) that determined suicide rates quite an it was the stability of political structures. The more stable the political structure, the more stable is the market. Hence, there are fewer tendencies for individuals to commit suicide. terminusAlthough these criticisms were significant in many respects, they are insufficient to demolish Durkheims s urmise of social facts. For one, Durkheim successfully defended the integrity of sociology as a field of study. And second, his analysis of suicide rates cannot be proved to be incomplete or faulty. His definition of suicide may be shaky, but the implication of such is of no theoretical importance. Hence, Durkheims study on suicide rates is sociologically acceptable. Reference Durkheim, Emile. 1897/1951. Suicide A Study of Sociology. J. A. Spaulding and G. Simpson. New York Free Press.