The act of suicide is an event that has been woven in to the fabric of our culture since our country’s inception. In order to conceptualize and define the problem of suicide, it is important to examine the various views of taking one’s own life. Suicide, and its tragic aftermath, has been the source of award winning movies such as Ordinary People and Leaving Las Vegas, along with the public debate, regarding assisted euthanasia, spotlighted in the case of Dr. Jack Kevorkian. Reports of skyrocketing suicide numbers amongst military personnel and veterans have permeated the national news in recent years. Suicide is even linked to martyrdom with numerous Presidents having bestowed our nation’s highest military honor upon military personnel who have sacrificed their own lives. In fact, the very Christian beliefs that this country was founded on, revolved around Jesus sacrificing his own life to absolve the sins of others. Despite this selfless act of intentional death, Christianity views suicide as a grave sin (Slick, n.d.).
Due to the varied characterizations of suicide, we will use the classifications of French sociologist Emile Durkheim. Durkheim published a groundbreaking book Le Suicide in 1897. This case study of suicide broke the act of taking one’s life in to four broad classifications; egoistic, anomic, altruistic, and fatalistic suicide. For the sake of this paper, we will concentrate on the classification of suicide as anomic and egoistic. Many sociologists suggest that the lack of social capital, existence of community networks, civic engagement, civic identity, reciprocity, and trust, is the main cause of suicide. The lack of this social capital leads to disillusionment and disappointment (Kushner & Sterk, 20...
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Sahoo, S., & Mohapatra, P. K. (2009). Demoralization Syndrome - A Conceptualization. Orissa Journal of Psychiatry, 18-20.
Slick, M. (n.d.). If a Christian commits suicide, is he still forgiven? | Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry. Retrieved February 19, 2014, from http://carm.org/questions/other-questions/if-christian-commits-suicide-he-still-forgiven
Speece, M. W. (1995). Children's Concepts of Death. Michigan Family Review, 1(1), 57-69.
Van Orden, K. A., Witte, T. K., Gordon, K. H., Bender, T. W., & Joiner, T. E. (2008). Suicidal Desire and the Capability for Suicide: Tests of the Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicidal Behavior Among Adults. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 76(1), 72-83.
Wal, J. V. (1989). The Aftermath of Suicide: A Review of Empirical Evidence. Omega-journal of Death and Dying, 20(2), 149-171.
Durkheim’s concept of social integration refers to social groups with well-defined values, traditions, norms, and goals. These groups will differ in the degree to which individuals are part of the collective body, also to the extent to which the group is emphasized over the individual, and lastly the level to which the group is unified versus fragmented. Durkheim believed that two types of suicide, Egoistic and Altruistic, could stem from social integration. Egoistic suicide resulted from too little social integration. Those people who were not sufficiently bound to a social group would be left with little or no social support in times of crisis. This caused them to commit suicide more often. An example Durkheim discovered was that of unmarried people, especially males, who, with less to connect them to stable social groups, committed suicide at higher rates than married people. Altruistic suicide is a result of too much integration. It occurs at the opposite end of the social integration scale as egoistic suicide. Self sacrifice appears to be the driving force, where people are so involved with a social group that they lose sight of themselves and become more willing to take one for the team, even if this causes them to die. The most common cases of altruistic suicide occur to soldiers during times of war. Religious cults have also been a major source of altruistic suicide.
Sakinofsky, I. (2007). The Aftermath of Suicide: Managing Survivors' Bereavement. Canadian Journal Of Psychiatry, 52129S-136S.
The main argument in this article is that there needs to be more ways to help people that are suicidal. The main point of this article is that they want to people to be more aware of how to help someone, and it is also full of information. The topics that are covered in the article are the issues at hand, the background with suicide in teens, and the next step that society needs to take. This article is about helping people that are suicidal and how to help them and let us know the next step that we need to take.
According to Durkheim, two types of suicide arise from the different levels social integration. One cause of suicide is extremely low social integration, which is referred to as egoistic suicide. Durkheim argues that this is the case because others give the individual’s life meaning, so without this support from the group the person may feel hopeless (Conley 188). The other type of suicide, altruistic suicide, reflects the opposite situation: when an individual is too socially integrated (Conley 189). This type of suicide occurs when members of a group or community become so totally engrossed by the group tha...
Her eyes were heavy, her body weak. As she crawled into the bathroom two feet away, Abby felt her body slowly succumbing to the numbness. All of her pain would be gone in less than 10 minutes, so why would she want to turn back? What about the senior trip Abby had planned with her best friend? What about the chair at the dinner table that would now be vacant? A couple of hours later Abby’s family came home from her little sister’s soccer game. Little did they know what they would find as they approached the top of the stairs. Her little sister, Ali, stood still as she looked down at her feet. There on the cold floor lay her big sister, her role model, and her super hero. Ali was crushed when she saw the pill bottle in her hand and the pale color of her skin. Her mom fell to her knees screaming and crying, wondering where she
In 1897, Emile Durkheim (1997) showed that the suicide – perhaps the most personal of all decisions – could be analysed through the conceptual lenses of sociology.
Minois, Georges. History of Suicide: Voluntary Death in Western Culture. Baltimore and London, Johns Hopkins UP, 1999.
Globally an estimated one million deaths every year are a result of suicide, which is more than all wars, conflicts, terrorist attacks and homicides combined annually. Over the past century studies have revealed that suicides occur in almost all societies and cultures (Khan and Mian, 2010). Therefore there exists a profound need for understanding this complex phenomenon and the challenging ethical issues for individuals, health care providers, governments and society. For centuries there have been philosophical debates on the act of suicide with no clear answers, due to the complexity of the topic. Mental health care professionals, especially mental health nurses, directly caring for suicidal patients should be aware of their own beliefs as well as the legal and ethical issues associated with caring for suicidal patients. Mental health nurses are encouraged to understand their own and other nurses’ attitudes and responses to suicide. There are two relevant ethical viewpoints regarding suicide: the moralistic and the libertarian perspective.
Michaelson, Peter. “A Hidden Reason for Suicidal Thoughts”(2013). Why We Suffer. n.pag. Web. 2 Apr. 2014
Suicide along with suicidal behavior has become very prevalent within our ever changing society. The United States estimates that nearly 30,000 people a year either attempt or completed the act of suicide. Studies from the World Health Organization indicate that suicide is one of the number one leading causes of our burden in the country. And is predicted to escalate as a tremendous global issue in years to come.
Although sociologists like J.D. Douglas would question the reliability of the statistics, due to the coroners decision being final, most sociologists would agree that Durkheim's study into suicide was successful, and indeed many have tried to develop and improve on his theory. Overall, this essay has shown that one type of methodology may not always be suitable for the particular research carried out. Both Interpretative sociology and the Positivist approach equally show that they are valid methods for carrying out research, but like everything, nothing is one hundred percent accurate. Therefore, there is always room for flaw, but in the study of Sociology, there is always room for more ways of obtaining and interpreting data.
In ancient history suicide was condemned to be a morally wrong sin. Plato claimed that suicide was shameful and its perpetrators should be buried in unmarked graves. When the Christian Prohibition came into play a man by the name of St. Thomas Aquinas defended the prohibition on three grounds. These are that suicide is contrary to natural self-love, whose aim is to preserve us. Suicide injures the community of which the individual is a part of. Suicide ...
Durkheim identified four causes of suicide: egoism, altruism, anomie and fatalism. Key to all of these was the focus on integration and regulation. Egoistic suicides occurred with low integration, altruistic with excessive; anomic suicides with low regulation, and fatalistic with excessive. He distinguishes between the ‘pre-modern’ suicides – altruism and fatalism, and the ‘modern’ suicides – egoism and anomie. The transition, he claims, from pre- to modern society has led to individualism, through greater social and economic mobility, and urbanisation. This personal autonomy has led to lesser...
“Suicide is not chosen; it happens when pain exceeds resources for coping with pain” (I-10). Ending a life is a big step in the wrong direction for most. Suicide is the killing of oneself. Suicide happens every day, and everyday a family’s life is changed. Something needs to be done to raise awareness of that startling fact. Suicide is a much bigger problem than society will admit; the causes, methods, and prevention need to be discussed more openly.
Suicide is the act of killing yourself because you do not want to continue living. It is done voluntarily and intentionally. It’s becoming a major global public health issue with almost 1 million people committing suicide each year (Suicide Data, 2010a). Suicide is a serious mental health problem affecting the lives of young adults. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the second leading cause of death for people between the ages of 15 and 24. During the past few decades, the number of adolescent deaths from suicide in the United States has increased significantly. “In 1997, there were 4186 suicides among people 15 to 24 years old, 1802 suicides among those 15 to 19 years old, and 2384 among those 20 to 24 years