Suicide: A Study in Sociology

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. Outline and critically discuss Durkheim’s theory of suicide

Emile Durkheim is known for many sociological theories and concepts, such as social solidarity, which although seen in his study of suicide, exists independently of it.  However, he is most famed for his classic methodological - and rather positivist - work, Suicide:  A Study in Sociology (First published in 1897).

The dictionary definition of suicide is “the intentional killing of oneself” (Marshall, 1998).  However, Durkheim believed that it took more than this to properly define this action, stating, “…suicide is applied to all cases of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive or negative act of the victim himself, which he knows will produce this result.”  (Durkheim, 1978, p 44).  By positive acts, he meant taking a course of action that was definitely intended to produce death, such as a huge overdose.  Negative acts referred to a lack of a distinct action that would ultimately result in death (as the individual would be aware), such as starving oneself.

Many argue that both this type of definition and Durkheim’s vast use of statistics generalised what is typically regarded as the most individual of acts.  Various criticisms and support of Suicide will be discussed later.  However, Steve Taylor points out that the great majority of studies on suicide since Suicide have been significantly “shaped” by the work of Durkheim.  (Taylor, 1982).

Durkheim was certainly not the first to study the issue of suicide, and a few had studied it within the discipline of sociology (though not to Durkheim’s extent), such as Wagner in 1864 and Marselli in 1879.  However, it is argued – if not generally accepted – that Durkheim’s study is “much more important.”  (Halbwachs, 1978, p 4).

As declared above, Durkheim was attacked due to his extensive use of statistics in showing suicide rates within different social contexts.  It is certainly a fact that statistics can be unreliable (see below, with particular regard to Taylor’s discussion of coroners), but they do provide a basis from which to start.  Even Taylor, who is sceptical of statistical analysis, concedes that if suicide were purely an individual action, all suicide rates would be “random and not consistent,” (Taylor, 1982, p 5) which Durkheim showed not to be the case.  Even if the rates that Durkheim investigated were imperfect, it seems highly unlikely that they could be so far incorrect as to be completely misleading.  Therefore, I believe at this point that while Durkheim’s theory does not provide a definitive explanation of the causes of suicide, it is not a wholly inaccurate analysis.  However, this obviously needs investigation.

The Theory: Eliminating Ideas

A substantial part of Durkheim’s study was employing a process of elimination in establishing the grounds for killing oneself, as Jones describes in great detail (Jones, 1986).  One suggestion to explain the suicide rate (as opposed to individual suicide) was the external physical environment, such as the climate in a particular country.  Analysing this using Europe, Durkheim agreed that the variation of numbers of suicide across the countries of this continent correlated roughly with the difference in each country’s climate.  However, he pointed out that other factors within each country were better at explaining the difference in the suicide rate and as such dismissed the climate as a viable cause of suicide.  However, one wonders slightly about this determination, since the fact that there is any correlation at all is unlikely to be any coincidence.  If the causes of varying suicide rates are purely sociological, then it seems odd that varying weather conditions matter at all; while Durkheim may claim that they do not, as stated above, it is an unusual twist of fate if the parallel between suicide rate and climate just happens to be so.

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Montesquieu (cited by Durkheim, 1978 and Jones, 1986) had stated the suicide was more likely in cold and foggy places, both because people became depressed due to the unpleasant weather and as life was, more difficult in such conditions.  However, Durkheim disproved this hypothesis, as he was pointed out that suicide rates were higher in spring and summer months (Durkheim, 1978, p 107).

Jones refers to a second “extra-social” cause – an individual’s psychological constitution, which he feels may vary from country to country.  In itself, such a remark helps to strengthen Durkheim’s notion of social causes, as ...

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