Émile Durkheim's Three Different Types Of Suicide
Fasoldt 1
Sophia Fasoldt
SOC 101
06 April 2012
Suicide in Sociology Émile Durkheim, a Frenchman commonly cited as the father of sociology, was the first to argue that the causes of suicide are found in social factors not just individual problems. He argued that suicide rates are affected by various social conditions from which they emerge. Durkheim studied how people feel integrated into a social structure and how that is likely or unlikely to produce suicide. Sociology classifies three different types of suicide: anomic suicide, altruistic suicide, and egoistic suicide. Anomic suicide happens when individuals feel lost or alone in society. An example of this is teenage suicide or campus suicides which are found to be caused by feelings of depression or hopelessness. Often individuals who commit this kind of suicide were abused as children or had alcoholic parents. Altruistic suicide occurs when the individual subordinates themselves to …show more content…
This type of suicide is most commonly committed by elderly who are over 75, presumably
Fasoldt 2 because of they lose many bonds in society due to retirement and loss of family and friends. People who commit egoistic suicide are cut off from or not well integrated into social networks. For example, both the shooters in the Virginia Tech and Columbine High School were characterized as extremely socially isolated. Is suicide an individual problem or a societal one? I believe that suicide is a macro-societal problem (meaning it can be caused by how people see themselves in society) but it is also an individual problem on a smaller scale. Largely people commit suicide because of feelings of dejection in society and that they are not part of a group. An example of this is suicide due to bullying. Often kids in school who are being harassed for being a loner kill themselves because they cannot bear the feelings of dejection and
Sophia Fasoldt
SOC 101
06 April 2012
Suicide in Sociology Émile Durkheim, a Frenchman commonly cited as the father of sociology, was the first to argue that the causes of suicide are found in social factors not just individual problems. He argued that suicide rates are affected by various social conditions from which they emerge. Durkheim studied how people feel integrated into a social structure and how that is likely or unlikely to produce suicide. Sociology classifies three different types of suicide: anomic suicide, altruistic suicide, and egoistic suicide. Anomic suicide happens when individuals feel lost or alone in society. An example of this is teenage suicide or campus suicides which are found to be caused by feelings of depression or hopelessness. Often individuals who commit this kind of suicide were abused as children or had alcoholic parents. Altruistic suicide occurs when the individual subordinates themselves to …show more content…
This type of suicide is most commonly committed by elderly who are over 75, presumably
Fasoldt 2 because of they lose many bonds in society due to retirement and loss of family and friends. People who commit egoistic suicide are cut off from or not well integrated into social networks. For example, both the shooters in the Virginia Tech and Columbine High School were characterized as extremely socially isolated. Is suicide an individual problem or a societal one? I believe that suicide is a macro-societal problem (meaning it can be caused by how people see themselves in society) but it is also an individual problem on a smaller scale. Largely people commit suicide because of feelings of dejection in society and that they are not part of a group. An example of this is suicide due to bullying. Often kids in school who are being harassed for being a loner kill themselves because they cannot bear the feelings of dejection and