How Did Durkheim Commit Suicide

Durkheim (1951) explains, “suicide is applied to any death which is direct or indirect results of a positive or negative acts accomplished by the victim himself…” (42). Suicide is a solidarity act; the cause has a significant connection to various social factors. Durkheim was trying to find a relationship between social interactions amongst individuals and suicide rates in different countries around Europe. “Since suicide in an individual action affecting the individual only, it must seemingly depend exclusively on individual factors, thus belonging to psychology alone” (Durkheim:46). What Durkheim is saying that suicide doesn’t come from within the individual but rather the influence of other factors on the individual. He compares different social factors that would potentially per sway an individual to commit suicide, like religion, domestic factors in a country, and political hardship.

“Catholic cantons show four to five times fewer suicides than Protestant, of whichever nationality” (Durkheim 1951:154). He expresses that Catholics and Jews are less likely to commit suicide than protestants. The evidence that Durkheim is showing in most of the tables is that if an individual has a strong religious background, that he/she has a less likely chance to commit suicide. Durkheim (1951) says, “An unusual increase in the number of suicides is observed parallel with this collective renaissance” (244). Durkheim points out that suicide increases when people fight back against the suppressors of their country. He saw that in Prussia,1866 to 1870, the average rate of suicide increased from 122 to 133 individuals. This is the data of what Durkheim uses for supporting his