Durkheim

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• Durkheim
• Suicide

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• Durkheims Suicide is a classical work in the
  sociological tradition.
• 1. identifies social factors involved in a very
  personal and intimate individual behavior.
• Helps define
• 1. the subject matter of sociology
• 2. the relationship between the private
  troubles and the public issues (sociological
  imagination)

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• 2. it is based on empirical and statistical data.
  
• Gives rise to an objective and quantitative
  research method in sociology

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• Durkheims findings are based on old data (not
  always valid today)
• However, his analysis has not lost its relevance
  (one of the major theoretical sources on suicide)

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Suicide in Canada

• Suicide is the third cause of death in Canada
  (more than 4).
• The following data on suicide in Canada confirm
  some of Durkheims conclusions.
• (Age, Gender, Profession, the Family, Ethnicity
  (Cohesion), Inequality)

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Age groups

• In Canada, suicide is the second highest cause of
  death for youth aged 10-24.

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Gender

• In 1991 the rate of suicide for young men was six
  times greater than for young women.

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Young girls are more likely to attempt suicide

• Considered suicide
• (12 to 14 years of age)
• 10 of girls and
• 4 of boys
• 
  A Quebec survey.
• (Grade 8)
• 20 of girls
• 13 of boys
• A survey
  in British Columbia

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Aboriginals

• The suicide rate among Indian youth was five
  times that of the total Canadian population.

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Well integrated Aboriginal Communities

• Some had low or non-existent rates of suicide
• self-government
• settling land claims,
• control over community social services
• engaging in traditional cultural healing
  practices.

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Professional groups

• Farm operators (lower rate)
• RCMP (half that of the comparable general
  population)

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Youth in Canada

• Causes of suicide
• Fewer important persons in the kinship network
• More conflicts with this network
• A strong experiences of being lonely and alone.

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Depression and self-esteem

• (12 to 18 years of age)
• feel really depressed once a month
• 43 percent of young women
• 23 of young men
• feel good about themselves
• 30young women
• 43young men

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Inequality

• Suicide risk among young males is increased when
  those around them are perceived to be more
  advantaged.

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• Egoistic Suicide

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Suicide and religion

• Protestants are found to kill themselves much
  more often than Catholics.
• How can we explain this fact?

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Catholicism

• In Durkheims view,
• is more hierarchical than Protestantism.

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Protestantism

• Protestantism concedes a greater freedom to
  individual because it has fewer
• 2. common beliefs
• 3. Practices (rituals)

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The three aspects of social Integration

• Rituals such as baptism, communion, wedding,
  confession, etc..
• Beliefs more religious beliefs regulate the
  individual's life.
• Organization Catholicism is more hierarchical
  than Protestantism.

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Happiness

• Results from the fulfilment of our needs
• Human needs are
• 1. Physical (bodily/organic needs)
• 2. Transcendental (beyond our bodily needs
  higher needs)

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Physical bodily Needs

• Their source is our body (e.g. need for food,
  clothing, shelter)
• They are fixed and given by our physical
  constitution (not by our social conditions) .

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• Their aim is our bodily existence (living)
• Their deployment is individual (no need for
  others or in Durkheims terms we are
  self-sufficient)

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As limited to bodily needs

• We can live happily with no other objective than
  living. i.e. without thought of any other ends
  in life.
• Yet, we have capacity to reflect, imagine and
  suggest to ourselves needs that go beyond what is
  merely indispensable for our survival (i.e.
  Transcendental ends).

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Transcendental ends

• Examples
• the sentiments of sympathy and solidarity
• art, morality, religion, political faith,
  science.
• They are
• not an essential and fixed part of human nature,
• acquired by people as they become adult and
  socialized.

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• the civilized adult
• has many ideas, feelings and practices unrelated
  to organic (bodily) needs
• Durkheim

• the child and the old
• are not so dependent on these (transcendental
  and higher) needs.

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The social origin of the higher needs

• Society
• Creates the sentiments of sympathy and
  solidarity drawing us toward others
• Fills us with religious, political and moral
  beliefs

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The social conditions of our higher needs

• Their satisfaction depends on the presence of
  others and on our interaction and relationship
  with others (i.e. Someone to love, to express our
  sympathy for, some one to play or listen to music
  with, etc.))

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The social aims of our higher needs

• They are not just for us to enjoy them
  individually but rather their aims are to enhance
  our relationships, to enrich our common life,
  i.e., our social existence)

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Social detachment and unhappiness

• Detachment from society deprives us from
• the conditions required for the fulfilment of
  our higher needs (i.e., our connection to and
  interaction with others)
• the aims and purposes of our higher ends.

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Further evidence

• The lower rates of suicide among
• Children and the aged physical man, in both,
  tends to become the whole of man.
• (no significant social needs)
• Woman Less social!
• can endure life in isolation more easily than
  man!

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Durkheims bias against women

• Womans sensibility is rudimentary rather than
  highly developed.!
• Man by contrast is a more complex social being,!

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• Is a reflection of the womens condition in his
  time,
• He, incorrectly, generalizes it by assuming that
  it represents womens nature in general!

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Egoistic Suicide Defined

• Egoism refers to a social condition which breeds
  egoism, leading to depression and suicide.

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Egoism

• On the one hand refers to
• A wrong belief that our interests and purposes
  are limited to our ego, that we are always
  motivated by self-interest and ought to do what
  is in our self-interest

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• This belief leads to a denial of the social
  origin of our human needs (such as the need for
  sympathy, cooperation, love, music, arts, etc..)
  and their purposes.

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• 2. A belief that only one's self exists (an
  excessive or exaggerated sense of self-importance
  (egotism)
• This belief leads to a scarce feeling of need
  for others or for social life in general.

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• The egoistic suicide is caused by a gap between
• our socially defined needs (an undeniable
  condition of human life) and
• our socially constructed egoistic value (a denial
  of our social needs and our need for others and
  social life in general)

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Shortcomings of Durkheims analysis

• 1. Not all higher ends have a positive social
  aim (e.g. power)
• 2. lacks a clear analysis of the causes of social
  disintegration.

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Anomic Suicide
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Economic crisis and suicide

• The statistics show that when an economic crisis
  occurs the rate of suicide increases.

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Economic prosperity and suicide

• But the statistics also show that economic
  prosperity leads to an increase in the suicide
  rate.

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Poverty and suicide

• People in poor countries are not necessarily
  unhappy, nor they commit suicide more than in
  rich advanced countries.

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Suicide Rates (per 100,000)

• Country Males Females
• Lithuania 73.7 13.7
• Russian Federation 72.9 13.7
• ..
• Switzerland 30.9 12.2
• France 30.4 10.8
• Japan 24.3 11.5
• Canada 21.5 5.4
• Sweden 20.0 8.5
• USA 19.3 4.4.    

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Justice and suicide

• Our perception of an undeserved poverty which is
  at the basis of our disappointment, and
  maladjustment in life.

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Justice and happiness

• Our bodily organic needs, same as animals needs,
  are regulated by nature biologically.

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Our infinite needs

• Yet our ends are not limited to our body
• We aim at better conditions in life.
• Left to ourselves to decide our ends in life
  they
• become unlimited, and unrealistic
• surpass the means
• become insatiable and bottomless abyss.

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• If it is not restraint, our ends become a source
  of torment
• to pursue a goal which is by definition
  unattainable is to condemn oneself to a state of
  perpetual unhappiness.

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How to limit our needs?

• Some force exterior to individual a regulative
  force is required.
• However, when individuals ends are "maintained
  by force or costume" it is superficially
  restrained and "peace and harmony is illusory".

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The moral restraint

• Not physical restraint, only a moral restraint
  (conscience) can limit our desires.
• To be moral, regulations must be recognized as
  just and
• must come from a power obeyed through respect."

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Justice is historical

• at every moment of history there is a dim
  perception of the respective value of different
  social services, the relative reward due to each.
  

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Equal opportunity

• if the conditions (of social success) are the
  same for everyone
• in the old times, it was based merely on "birth",
  but nonetheless considered as legitimate.
• Today only hereditary fortune and merit.

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Justice is social

• Society"
• 1. gives the individuals standards to judge what
  is just and unjust.
• (e.g. birth vs. merit, i.e. Ascription vs.
  Achievement)

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• 2. stipulates law, and estimates the reward
  offered to functions (e.g., what a teacher, a
  working person, a Doctor should expect)

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• 3. Gives the reasons for accepting the rules of
  justice.
• Justice requires sacrifices in the name of the
  public interest

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When is justice disrupted?

• 1. when society is disturbed by some painful
  crisis or by beneficent but abrupt transitions.

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Economic crises and justice

• Economic disasters
• lead to the declassification of certain
  individuals (e.g. Unemployment and poverty)
• Abrupt growth
• the social resources is changed and there is a
  need for a new adjustment.

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2. Chronic and acute Anomy

• Lack of a framework of meaningful constraint,
  i.e., a moral influence.
• To teach
• tolerance in the face of hardship
• contentment with ones position in life
• Occurs mostly in the sphere of trade and
  industry.

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Religion in the older Societies

• justified social differences
• promised compensation in the next world
• taught that worldly economic success
• is not the primary goal of life
• must be subordinated to intangible goals

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Modern Societies

• Religion is replaced by economy as the dominant
  social institution.
• The government has become a servant of business
  and has no longer any moral function.
• Economy (as the dominant institution) is freed
  from moral regulation.
• Economic activity is regarded as the supreme end
  and not as a means to an end.

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The end Material Success

• Desires become material wants and the pursuit of
  private gains.
• All desires considered to be possible with
  sufficient effort.
• From top to bottom of the ladder, greed is
  aroused without knowing where to find ultimate
  foothold.

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Market and Consumerism

• Industrial production (market) demands
• an endless need for products
• Market acts to extend and expand desires
• A thirst arises for
• novelties,
• unfamiliar pleasures,
• nameless sensations,

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The anomic suicide defined

• Results from lack of regulation.
• Regulation is needed for
• Regulating our ends and needs within the limits
  and boundaries of justice.

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Anomie can result from

• A lack of norms in general (abrupt changes)
• The unfairness of social norms (inequality)
• Weakness or lack of individuals commitment to
  the social norms.
• (The last one, as we shall see, is more important
  for Durkheim)

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• Egoistic Suicide refers to the quality of our
  ends (Social Vs. Egoistic), anomic suicide to the
  quantity of our needs (our share in the social
  resources).
• The issue in egoistic suicide is our values, in
  anomic suicide our norms.
• One leads to depression the other to anger and
  frustration.
• One requires social integration, the other social
  regulation.

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Shortcomings

• Durkheim does not provide a systematic analysis
  of suicide.
• What is the relationship between egoistic and
  anomic suicide, between social (dis)integration
  and social (de)regulation?