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Nashra HusseinThis paper is a key composition of the prominent sociological theory that Emile Durkheim came up with during his living. It basically sheds light on the suicide theory that the renowned sociologist proposed with.

EMILE DURKHEIM

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Introduction

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) is considered to be one of

the founders of the modern academic discipline of sociology.

In the old days, it was often believed that suicide results

from malady or individual decisions. However, Durkheim had

managed to shed light on the fact that society plays vital

role in building individual consciousness and behaviour, which

often emerges as suicidal behaviour in many case. Also, he

believed that ‘religion’ acted as a ‘prophylactic’ against

suicide due to its rituals and how it emerges as an

institution bringing individuals together as a group, which in

turn causes such individuals to possess a sense of belonging

and at the same time gain a sense of what it is to be a

particular sort of individual. Hence, the imposition of

expectations from society and religious rules that one is

compelled to abide to often cause one to fall in dilemma and

struggle emotionally to survive in a society. All this can

often lead to suicide. In addition to that, Durkheim

classified suicide under three broad categories. That is;

egoistic suicide, anomic suicide and altruistic suicide. It is

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claimed that all three types of suicide result from an

individual’s integration with the society. It has been clearly

stated that society and its role of creating expectations from

individuals often fall as a conflict with one’s self ego,

causing one to refrain from society and be isolated. Such

phenomenon leads to egoistic suicide. On the other hand,

anomic suicide often results from individuals facing

difficulty in coping with new situations or a transitional

period in society, which leads to frustration and eventually

suicide. Lastly, altruistic suicide emerges out of excess

integration of individuals within a society, causing them to

act in self-destructive manner while thinking for the

betterment of a large mass of population. Therefore, we

perceive a crystal clear image of how society plays a key role

in the occurrence of suicide one way or the other. The

following paper will emphasize on the three types of suicide

that Durkheim came up with via his suicide theory, also how

religion plays a fundamental role in the suicide trends.

1. Types of Suicide

Barkley & Breault (1982) stated that Durkheim employed

two variables, as that of integration and regulation. In

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social circumstances where integration is low, egoistic

suicide takes place and where it is high altruistic suicide

takes its peak. Whereas, in societies where regulation is low

anomic suicide results and vice versa for fatalistic suicide

results. (p. 321). Therefore, suicide typologies introduced by

Durkheim are as follows.

1.1. Anomic Suicide

According to Durkheim, he classified suicide under three

broad heading. They are anomic, egoistic and altruistic

suicide. Let us firstly come down to a discussion in regards

to anomic suicide. Li (1973) explained that anomic suicide

results from a break-down of the regulative power of societal

norms. Hence, individuals end up in new situations and

experiences which seeks to create conflicts between what they

desire and what they actually get as rewards from society.

Durkheim mentioned several examples of anomic suicide, for

instance, social change such as economic depression, any

disturbance in the social order as that of changes of family

structure which leads to tensions between parents and

children. He claimed that domestic settings often tend to play

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a key role in the notion of anomic suicide. (p. 215).

Furthermore, Li (1973) reported that in Taiwan the second most

important cause of suicide is domestic quarrels. These

problems account for roughly 27 per cent of Taiwanese

suicides. This factor, as a cause, appears to have been

increasing since the post war period and may be indicative of

the change in the Taiwanese social structure. Economic

hardship is the third important cause of Taiwanese suicide; 18

per cent of suicides fall into this category. (217).

Thus, from the above claim we can deduce that a post

war period can certainly bring about a change in the social

structure of an economy, for instance, new form of

authoritative power, new economic system which may be in a

worse condition or in a transitional phase, declassification

may occur which may caste a group of people into a lower state

than previous one. This in turn causes them to restrain their

needs perhaps, learn greater self-control, they can no longer

take advantage of social influence, etc. Such phenomenon makes

it difficult for these groups to adjust to the new lives that

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they are compelled to abide to. These sufferings often lead to

anomic suicide.

Furthermore, we can relate anomic suicide to the post

war period of Bangladesh. After the nine months war between

Bangladesh and Pakistan, we can say that there had been a lot

of change in the economy. For instance, Bangladesh had gone

through famine, shortage in food supply, unemployment. Even

the new form of government had its own ways of running the

country and many stood in opposition to its reign, which

eventually led to the assassination of former president Sheikh

Mujibur Rahman. During such phase, the Biharies living in

Bangladesh but are originally Pakistanies went through severe

hardships. Not only they were confined to camps, but they were

not treated equally, nor were they given proper jobs and could

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not enjoy various forms of social advantages that the rest of

the population could enjoy from. Hence, such situations

clearly portray a picture of how the common people suffered in

the post war period, specially the Biharies, which eventually

made it very difficult for them to adjust to the new living

conditions of Bangladesh. Such phenomenon can often cause

unrest among people and create much of disharmony, which

gradually leads to suicide, which can be termed as anomic

suicide.

1.2. Egoistic Suicide or Atomistic Suicide

Li (1973) stated “Egoistic suicide, according to

Durkheim, results from an individual's lack of integration

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with other members òf thé society,” (p. 215). We can clearly

perceive an idea that when a conflict emerges between an

individual and society, the individual ego faces sensation of

misery and dissatisfaction as a result of being felt as

mistreated by society. Such is the case of atomistic suicide.

In order to get into the very depth of it, we can start by

saying that often individuals tend to be self-dependant,

rather depending too much on society. Such self-dependant

people often fall in a conflicting state with society along

with it’s rules or perhaps tradition. Therefore, the

individual ego of the victims start to alienate themselves

from society and they begin to feel as though they are being

separated from other people. This alienation leads to hopeless

despair and sense of bitter isolation which eventually leads

to atomistic suicide.

In my opinion, I strongly feel that teenage suicide in

affluent societies often emerge as egoistic suicide. For

instance, children who suffer as victims to ‘bully’ often feel

a sense of isolation as he/she no longer fits in their batch

as a normal person. Often students are bullied for being

handicapped or having an unusual trait in their appearances.

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Such cases cause them to be different from others and as a

result view by as society as “the other.” Such phenomenon

leads to mistreatment by fellow classmates which leads to

aggression and extreme form of frustration that the victims

face, this often leads to egoistic suicide.

We can relate the issue of eve-teasing to egoistic suicide as

well. As Ghosh (2011) reported “this pleasureness leads the

girls to be affected tremendously specifically those girls who

dislike eve teasing. ... are forced by their parents to get

married according to their choice, several suffer from severe

stress disorder and even some are driven to commit suicide”

(p. 99), from which we can get the main idea that eve-teasing

often cause young girls in patriarchal societies to emerge as

subject to harsh or abusive treatment led by men. Such

occurrences causes these girls to feel as though they are

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being subject to humiliation and disrespect while coming from

societies made up of rich traditional values. Hence, it leads

to feelings of aggression and frustration as they start to

feel more and more isolated from society in which men have the

upper hand and again it is men to whom they are victim. Such

cases often lead to egoistic suicide.

In addition to that, it is further believed that in

religious societies, non-religious people often turn out to be

victims of egoistic suicide. For instance, Islam being a

legalistic religion itself, tends to portray the sheer essence

of mechanical solidarity. As we know that in Islam religion

there are many rules which the followers will have to abide to

in every step of life. Hence, for atheists or perhaps non-

religious people who dwell in Islamic communities may undergo

the feeling of extreme separation from the rest of society as

each and every member of community lives their lives according

to the norms of religion on a daily basis. Hence, the

individual ego of these non-religious people can be excess

compared to social ego, which as a result leads to moments of

aggression and eventually suicide.

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Also, rich people in society often feel as though they

are separated from the rest of the community, despite the

luxuries that they are blessed with. It is believes that the

rich tend to be superior in terms of wealth and power compared

to mass population, which as a result causes them to have very

few people in their category while classifying a society on a

broader base. However, in most societies majority of

population emerge to be middle class or poor, and therefore

there are often strong ties and unity among these people.

Hence, they no longer feel as though they are being separated

from society, but rather as part of the society. On the other

hand, the rich having their differences from the rest of the

population tend to appear as “the other” in society, this

often can lead various forms of depression or aggression,

which in turn leads to egoistic suicide.

1.3. Altruistic Suicide

Altruistic suicide is a form of suicide that is mostly

seen in folk societies. As Li (1973) claimed that often people

take their lives with the belief that the act will benefit

others. In this case, individuals think only about the welfare

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of the group while committing suicide. For instance, often

people commit suicide so that their family will have one less

mouth to feed or so that he may protect it from evil or shame.

People with physical infirmities may kill themselves to ease

the financial burden on their families or tribes. It is also

customary in some folk societies to commit suicide as part of

a religious observance upon the death of certain persons. The

most common form of altruistic suicide is that which is

committed as expiation for a certain violation of the mores or

norms; to avoid public disgrace, the only re- course for the

offender is death by his own hand. (p. 215-216).

Therefore, we can clearly see now that the different

typologies of suicide seem to be quite essential in terms of

looking deeper at things and knowing how society operates. We

can say that suicide more or less emerges from social cause

which had been the central thesis to Durkheim’s study of

suicide to begin with.

2. Suicide & Religion

Durkheim mentioned about religion as a portrayal of basic

social realities. He believed that religion symbolised society

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itself. Doyle, Rushing & Stark (1983) explained that according

to Durkheim’s theory of religion and its connection to

suicide, it had been claimed that religious rituals enable

people to unite as groups and it helps to reaffirm its

solidarity. However, religious pluralism only leads to a

reduction of social integration. Religion has the power to

bring together its followers under a “single moral community.”

The real causes of Protestant-Catholic differences in suicide

rates emerged out of the differences in the level of social

integration. As it was believed by Durkheim that Catholicism

provides an essence of strongly integrated social groups,

whereas, protestants hold on to individual salvation without

meditation of the church, which eventually causes them to be

“spirit of free inquiriy.” Hence, Protestantism appeared to be

an overthrow of traditional beliefs. (121-122). This as a

result portrays the significance of religion in its effect on

suicide rates. As it can be clearly stated now that during

Durkheim’s time, the Great Britain was split between its

religious division of Catholics and Protestant, via which a

strong social integration remained persistant among the

Catholics with its strong roots of religious values and

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tradition, as opposed to Protestants, who followed a somewhat

more relaxed form of Christianity compared to the Catholics,

which enabled the Protestants to live without strict religious

laws or tradition. Therefore, as the Catholics comprise of

social integration, its followers have each other’s back

without ever having to feel as though they are being separated

from society. The feeling of ‘belonging’ takes its peak among

the Catholics. Vice versa is the case for Protestants, leading

to a lacking in the sense of ‘belonging,’ which may often lead

to Egoistic suicide eventually.

Doyle, Rushing & Stark (1983) further stated that

Durkheim called Catholicism to be “collective life”.

Catholicism can create collective states of mind as it did not

allow dissent, it enjoys consensus on religion which leads to

more integration among its followers. Such was not the case

with the Protestants which lacked social integration. (p.

127).

On the contrary, there had been strong debates against

Durkheim’s claim in regarding to religion and its effect on

suicide, as many believed Durkheim failed to look into the

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theological differences between Catholicism and Protestantism

before coming up with his theory. Theological differences may

be that in Catholicism, suicide was considered as a “mortal

sin” which prevented freedom of the soul. However, in

Protestantism, though suicide is considered a sin but they

lacked the concept of mortal sin. For Catholics, suicide

brought great sufferings for family and friends as sacraments

like funeral services or burial in holy ground were not

allowed for those who committed suicide. However, similar

practices were not held for Protestant groups in the 19th

century. We can conclude that Protestantism lacked the

theological means to prohibit suicide as opposed to

Catholicism. Hence, such could be the reason for greater

number of suicides among the Protestants rather than the

Catholics, which has nothing to do with social integration.

This could be one example of how reasons for differences in

suicide rates among the two religious groups differ which

stands in opposition to Durkheim’s theory of suicide and

religion.

Conclusion

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Lastly, we can come to a conclusion Emile Durkheim

focused on social setting to a large extent while introducing

the classification of suicide and how other relevant matters

are interlinked with it. Each and every theory of his rotates

around the social phenomenon in which people are compelled to

adjust to and abide by on a daily basis. Often it is seen that

suicide results for too much of integration within a social

context or perhaps too little of integration, whatever the

case is, we can come to conclude that serious measures and

steps needs to be taken by authority of different societies to

prevent individuals from being to isolated from society or

mislead via excess integration, simultaneously, a change or

transition in society should also be kept smooth by different

policy measures taken by the government in order to prevent

mass population from being a victim. Hence, such measures can

certainly reduce suicide rates and ensure a healthy and safe

environment.

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References

Barkey, K., & Breault, D.K. (1982). A Comparative Analysis of

Durkheim's Theory of

Egoistic Suicide. The Sociological Quarterly, 23,321-331.

Doyle, P.D., Rushing, L.J., & Start, R (1983). Beyond

Durkheim: Religion and Suicide.

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 22,120-131.

Ghosh, D. (2011). Eve Teasing: Role of the Patriarchal System

of the Society. Journal of the

Indian Academy of Applied Psychology, 37, 100-107.

John, D.B. (1965). Durkheim’s One Cause of Suicide. American

Sociological Review, 30,

875-886.

Li, L.W (1973). Durkheim’s Typology of Suicide: Some

Observations from Taiwanese Data.

International Review of Modern Sociology, 3. 214-223.

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