Emile Durkheim's Theories Of Suicide

Emile Durkheim through his understandings of sociology created his perceptions of why individuals commit suicide. Durkheim explained his research, findings and beliefs in his book “Suicide” which was published in 1897. He believed that the act of suicide was not an individual private act, but that an individual committed suicide as a result of social influences. The argument held strong because of the research Durkheim completed. His research studied the differences between women and men, Jews and Protestants, and aspects such as heredity, and climate. He believed suicide was a direct result of what people faced in society. Durkheim defined suicide as: “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.” (QUOTE) Durkheim studied suicide to prove the power of new science sociology. He expected that if he could prove that sociology was a key factor in the act of suicide then this could extent to sociology’s phenomenon. He was interested in explaining the differences in the rates of suicide, and how one particular gender had a higher rate than the other. He believed that the social influences could help …show more content…
Integration is the strength of the attachment we have on a society, where regulation is the degree of external constraint on people. Both social facts contributed in the development of Durkheim’s four types of suicide. Egoistic and altruistic are based on the integration, and anomic and fatalistic, are based on regulation. The two social facts are continuous variable and suicides rates will go up when either of these social facts are too low or too high. Each of the four types of suicide, leads an individual into another state of being and therefore causes them to suffer more in society. This then leads an individual to contemplate or commit