UPSC SOCIOLOGY – Paper 2 – SOCIOLOGICAL THINKERS – Chapter 4 – Emile Durkheim- Division of labour, social fact, suicide, religion and society.
- Durkheim in his Le Suicide,1897 defines Suicide as any case of death caused by directly or indirectly, positive or negative action of the victim himself which he knows will produce this result.
- He examined a seemingly personal phenomenon in a sociological way.
- Used the scientific methodology in Sociology for the first time.
- It is based on data which can be directly observed and measured.
- This theory is well known for the pragmatic approach of Durkheim in understanding social problems.
METHODOLOGY
- He took data from police records from various regions of Europe.
- Reviewed the existing literature on suicide.
- rejected the existing explanations which linked suicide to factors like imitation, stress and modernity.
- Proved that suicide cannot be explained through psychological, geographical, climatic, hereditary factors, etc.
- Explains sociological causes of suicide by correlating suicide rates with various social factors.
- He explored causes of suicide in other social causes by using statistical techniques and found concomitant relation between suicide rate and different social variables.
- The variables are marital status, locality, religious orientation, male or female, etc.
CONCLUSIONS OF DURKHEIM’S SEARCH
- Males have greater suicidal tendency as compared to females.
- Rate of suicide is found more among the bachelors as marriage protects individuals against suicide by integrating individuals into stable social relations.
- Underdeveloped countries have less rate of suicide than developed countries.
- Protestants commit more suicide than Catholics.
ANALYSIS
- Those who have a higher tendency of committing suicide are less integrated into society in one way or the other.
- Thus, he concluded that suicide is a social phenomenon.
- Identified two types of bonds that integrate individual into society:
- Forces of Integration – Over-integration and low integration
• Altruistic Suicide – it is the result of over integration of an individual. Acts like Sati is an example.
• Egoistic Suicide – it is a result of low integration of individuals in a society. Examples include suicides resulting from failure and depression. - Forces of Regulation – Over-regulation and Under-regulation.
• Anomic Suicide – periods of destruction unleash currents of Anomie like moods of rootlessness and normlessness. Increase in suicides during economic boom or bust is an example (Under-regulation)
• Fatalistic Suicide – results of excessive (Over-regulation) control of society over an individual. Suicide of a slave out of hopelessness is an example.
CRITICISM
- David Freedman accused Durkheim of committing ecological fallacy as he tried to analyse an apparent personal phenomenon.
- Durkheim relied on poor quality data as it was taken from police stations which do not include unreported suicides. Also did not include attempted suicides.
- Undermined psychological factors for suicide.
