Preview

Emile Durkheim's Three Types Of Suicide

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
523 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Emile Durkheim's Three Types Of Suicide
As proved in Emile Durkheim’s sociological research project, Suicide, people who end their lives tend to be categorized in three types of suicides: egoistic, altruistic, and anomic (Zulke 19). Egoistic suicide relates to individuals who feel they are isolated from society and detached from others, inevitably leading one to believe that suicide is the appropriate solution to avoid becoming a burden. Alternatively, however, altruistic suicide correlates with people who view their life as less valuable than those belonging in a group and are willing to sacrifice their lives for the benefit of others. Dissimilar to the idea of egoistic and altruistic suicide pertaining to an individual’s extent of social integration within society, anomic suicide pertains to those who feel they lack normalness in their lives when society experiences drastic changes. Individuals who usually feel fulfilled with their day-to-day behavior but encounter a sense of emptiness and meaninglessness in their goals demonstrate a lose in motivation to want to keep living.
Some famous examples of suicides are …show more content…
Unfortunately, the families of those people remain unaware of the suicidal attempts as those persons typically decide to remain quiet about their depression. This, however, affects me drastically as I not only constantly worry about their well being, but I also feel helpless when trying to comfort them. Particularly for young people, depression in an individual remains unknown until it is too late. Therefore, to prevent more suicides, the immediate response is to make sure the individuals are not left alone so that they are not able to self-harm themselves. Likewise, seeking professional help and letting those closest to that person know what is happening is another step towards combatting depression and lowering suicide
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    College Essay On Teenage Suicide
    • 721 Words
    • 3 Pages

    College Essay On Teenage Suicide

    Teenagers turn to suicide for a lot of different reasons, most of the time we don’t know exactly why. There are always so many questions without answers. An open book with the story not finished. People with mental illnesses are at a higher risk of contemplating suicide than others. The warning signs of suicide are huge, everyone should know them. If someone starts showing the signs they need to get the help that is needed. Suicide is becoming big, it's not out of the ordinary like it used to be. The issue needs to be recognized, to many lives are being lost to issues that are very…

    • 721 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Using material from item A and elsewhere assess the different sociological explanations of suicide.

    • 1768 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Using material from item A and elsewhere assess the different sociological explanations of suicide.

    Suicide is the act of intentionally killing oneself, the issue of suicide is widely studied by many different sociologists including the positivist scientific approach which focuses on identifying the causation of suicide through use of statistics and quantitative methods. Also the interpretivist approach which looks to identify the meanings attached to the action of suicide. For interpretivists, suicide is an interesting topic to study because sociologists can attempt to identify why the individual committed suicide to discover more in-depth meanings through the use of qualitative data. As shown in item A, Durkheim is a positivist sociologist and identified in his research that there are many different social causes which could result in suicide. As well as this, there has been recognised to be certain groups of people who may be more or less likely to commit. For example, Doctors, Dentists and Farmers are placed in the groups whom are most likely to commit suicide due to the fact they have access to the means to physically commit suicide (drugs, medications and shotguns).…

    • 1768 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Using Item A and elsewhere, assess different sociological explanations of suicide
    • 1578 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Using Item A and elsewhere, assess different sociological explanations of suicide

    Durkheim was the first to study the social causes, or facts that he believed led to suicide, and these social facts are what shape humans’ behaviour and are external to the individual. He did recognise that some were naturally predisposed to committing suicide, but he argue that it was largely a social problem. However, many interpretevists contest Durkheim’s findings, arguing that the meaning needs to be investigated to find the causes of a suicide rather than a positivist approach, relying on scientific methods.…

    • 1578 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Durkheimian Theories Applied to Buffalo Creek
    • 1974 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Durkheimian Theories Applied to Buffalo Creek

    Durkheim’s concept of social integration refers to social groups with well-defined values, traditions, norms, and goals. These groups will differ in the degree to which individuals are part of the collective body, also to the extent to which the group is emphasized over the individual, and lastly the level to which the group is unified versus fragmented. Durkheim believed that two types of suicide, Egoistic and Altruistic, could stem from social integration. Egoistic suicide resulted from too little social integration. Those people who were not sufficiently bound to a social group would be left with little or no social support in times of crisis. This caused them to commit suicide more often. An example Durkheim discovered was that of unmarried people, especially males, who, with less to connect them to stable social groups, committed suicide at higher rates than married people. Altruistic suicide is a result of too much integration. It occurs at the opposite end of the social integration scale as egoistic suicide. Self sacrifice appears to be the driving force, where people are so involved with a social group that they lose sight of themselves and become more willing to take one for the team, even if this causes them to die. The most common cases of altruistic suicide occur to soldiers during times of war. Religious cults have also been a major source of altruistic suicide.…

    • 1974 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Assess Different Sociological Explanations of Suicide
    • 1431 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Assess Different Sociological Explanations of Suicide

    Item A references to Durkheim’s Structural Functionalist view on suicide, as stated Durkheim believes that due to sociology being a science with the topic of suicide it is very easy to make causal laws or as said in Item A ‘social facts’. Due to the fact Durkheim believed that there were a number of causes behind suicide he form four types of suicide from a Positivist viewpoint. Egoistic suicide which is when individuals are not integrated well enough into society for example people who live alone compared to those who live with family. Secondly Altruistic suicide which is when individuals are felt to be too integrated into society causing suicide, for example members of the armed forces were said to have greater suicide rates than civilian personnel as they were too strongly integrated into a united body. Durkheim also put forward the idea of Anomic suicide, this is when the norms and values in society become unclear or confused in times of great social change and an individual is not taught to adapt to changes well enough. For example an unexpected death of a family member is sudden social change which can cause Anomic suicide. Lastly, he suggested Fatalistic suicide. Fatalism is the thinking of…

    • 1431 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Suicide AQA Sociology essay 21 marker
    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Suicide AQA Sociology essay 21 marker

    Durkheim’s work showed a correlation between suicide and social facts like suicide rates were higher in predominantly protestant countries than in catholic ones, Jews were the religious group with the lowest suicide rate, married people were less likely to commit suicide and those with higher education had a higher suicide rate.…

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Emile Durkheim's Theory Of Suicide
    • 1459 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Emile Durkheim's Theory Of Suicide

    Durkheim, a positivist sociologist, argued that society is based on social facts which need to be observed and tested scientifically (Giddens. 1986). Through his empirical study on suicide, Durkheim concluded that although suicide was a solitary act, it was a social fact triggered by causes of society. He found that too less or too much of integration and regulation can be a problem, Protestants had higher suicide rates as opposed to Catholics - Durkheim established a link between egoistic and anomic suicide…

    • 1459 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    socio;ogy notes
    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages

    socio;ogy notes

    Understand how and why levels of social integration affect rates of suicide and how Emile Durkheim’s nineteenth century study of suicide helped to demonstrate the ways in which social integration affects people’s behaviors.…

    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Main Causes Of Suicide In New York City
    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Main Causes Of Suicide In New York City

    Living in one of the most crowded places, you would expect the suicide rates to be higher in New York City as opposed to other cities in the world. New York City has an astounding rate of 8% suicide rate per 100,000 people. Then there is Las Vegas with a surprising 34.5% suicide rate. Shouldn’t New York City, one of the most stressful cities to live in have a higher suicide rate? But why doesn’t it, you may ask? Emile Durkheim, a Functionalist has expressed his thoughts within his book, Suicide. He refers to social integration vs detachment as one of the main causes of suicide. Durkheim also expresses his opinions on social bonds and why we need them to function in life. One of the main causes of suicide is isolation. This proves that social bonds and isolation have a connection to suicide.…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Suicide Argumentative Analysis
    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Suicide Argumentative Analysis

    Suicide is the intentional termination of one's own life with the objective being to cease living. For the purposes of this essay, self-sacrifice, or suicide for the sake of others, will not be considered a form of suicide as in that situation the individual does not possess the desire to die, they are instead putting the lives of others above their own. The standard position on suicide holds that all suicides are immoral and irrational except for in cases of terminal illness. This position on suicide is too restrictive and dismisses the suffering others experiences in instances beyond terminal illness. There are extreme situations in which most would agree that suicide is an acceptable choice. For example, someone trapped in a fire or subjected…

    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Suicide In North America Essay
    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Suicide In North America Essay

    In North America, we are dependant on the idea of the American Dream; good jobs to pay for all our wants and needs. But when our ability to pay for our desires is threatened, some may turn to suicide as an escape from issues we cannot face. In recent years, suicide in North America has been on the rise, with all walks of life affected. From newly unemployed men and women killing themselves after the economic crash of 2008, to young girls killing themselves as a result of being publicly shamed on the internet, it is my belief that while death is not celebrated or encouraged it can be an alternative to failure in North America. Soceity discourages people killing themselves yet to some it is the best option. Suicide, act of one ending their own…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Culture and Suicide Antropology
    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Culture and Suicide Antropology

    No other behavior has health consequences as final as suicide- the taking of one’s own life. Psychologist and Anthropologist have long been fascinated by suicide, and have studied this behavior across many cultures the researches to date suggests many interesting cross-cultural different ways in which people of different cultures view not only death, but life itself.…

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The bridge in San Francisco
    • 679 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The bridge in San Francisco

    In terms of counselling to prevent suicide or helping clients with suicidal thoughts there is work to be done with interventions and understanding the mind set of such individuals. Some people are so desperate to end their suffering that their thoughts are clouded. I watched a programme titled ‘Piers Morgan life stories’ featuring Beverly Callad. She is a well-known actress currently starring in a popular TV soap opera called Coronation Street. She had spent many years suffering from clinical depression; during her last break down while she was in a psychiatric hospital, she tried to commit suicide. She had also tried 5 times before. In the interview she said that she had no recollection of what she had done but just wanted her life to stop. However, she remembers feeling worthless, unlovable and ugly despite the fact that she had a loving family. In the ‘Bridge Video’ many of the jumpers were in loving family environments. However their thoughts still turned to suicide leaving their loved ones totally devastated, confused and sometimes feeling guilty. It’s difficult for people to understand why someone would want to die when they themselves do not know.…

    • 679 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Emile Durkheim Commit Suicide
    • 113 Words
    • 1 Page

    Emile Durkheim Commit Suicide

    A social pattern that people in society tend to see as a personal choice would be suicide. Emile Durkheim examined how suicide was different by religion, gender, and relationships. Such as if the had children and rates of suicide during peacetime than during war. Durkheim revealed that suicide can be caused by social factors, not just individual ones.…

    • 113 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Strain Theory Of Suicide
    • 171 Words
    • 1 Page

    Strain Theory Of Suicide

    Suicide is heartbreaking and sad for anyone involved. There are many risk elements substance abuse, mental disorders, and alcoholism. Many individuals who are keeping the balance between internal and external restrictions are not at the danger for committing suicide as well as homicide. Although, when individuals fail their balance between frustration and aggression by restraints from society, they articulate them externally. This disproportion will lead to individual`s strain, that in result causes criminality. Suicide is a violation of sociological norms and it normally starts with enormous strain. The strain theory can describe the suicide by understanding the complex processes to suicide. A destructive relationship with others can lead…

    • 171 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics