Sociological Approach To Suicide

A Sociological Approach to the Republic of Suicide

In the recent years, South Koreans have coined the word, “Republic of Suicide” to refer to South Korea as a nation of unfortunately high suicide rates. Unsurprisingly, South Koreans in all ages have significantly higher suicide rates compared to people of the majority of the other nations in the world today. Regarding various personal and psychological factors as secondary factors, this paper relies on the sociological arguments discussed by Emile Durkheim in his celebrated work, Suicide, to explain suicide as a social phenomenon. Drawing from Durkheim’s explanations of suicide in relations to social integration and regulation, this paper attempts to expound on the general trends of high

suicide rates in modern day South Korea.
The enormous discrepancy between the desires and reality caused by insufficient social regulations is a determining cause of high suicide rates in Korea. Durkheim writes, “unlimited desires are insatiable by definition and insatiability is righty considered a sign of morbidity” (p.247). The clash between unlimited desires and the reality of limited environment and resources causes fierce frustration among individuals. When this frustration persists and intensifies, it can eventually lead to suicide. While “it is not human nature which can assign the variable limits necessary to our needs” (p.247), society can act as an external force that restrains this capacity. When society fails to provide sufficient regulation, however, individuals are susceptible to self-destruction. Durkheim calls this type of suicide anomic suicide.
“It is a case of a black hen laying white eggs” is a famous saying in Korea, which implies that it is possible for one to achieve success by climbing up the social ladder. In the modern society, however, increasingly more people dispute the saying and claim that it is not possible for a black hen to lay white eggs anymore in Korea. Such disputes suggest that Koreans are distressed by the fact that working hard will not guarantee them to attain their desires. This is a clash that results from insufficient social regulation of individual desires. Moreover, numerous recent surveys show that the amount of money Koreans perceive to be sufficient in order to be considered wealthy is increasing to a level where it is virtually impossible for people of average economic status to attain. In consequence of the lack of sufficient regulation of desires from the society, people suffer of the unlimited yet unattainable desires. Such disparity causes greater discomfort among Korean men than women because Korean society is traditionally a patriarchal society where men are expected to be responsible for providing economic stability for his family. For these reasons, it is not surprising that the suicide rates of Korean men above the ages of 40 is much higher than those of Korean women.
Ironically, not only can insufficient social regulation give rise to suicide, but excessive regulation can also lead to another form of suicide. Durkheim defines fatalistic suicide as a type of suicide that “is derived from excessive regulation, that of persons with futures pitilessly blocked and passions violently choked by oppressive discipline”(p.276). Although he does not acknowledge fatalistic suicide as a concerning problem in the modern society, it is a prevalent form of suicide among Korean teenagers today. Overall, compared to the Americans in their ages of 5 to 14, the Korean counterparts commit almost twice as much suicide. Excessive social regulation reflected by the overwhelming emphasis the Korean society places on academics explain this phenomenon. Along with many other East Asian countries, the Korean society, by means of parents, schools and peers, indoctrinates the students about the significance of attending the prestigious universities since early ages. As a result, many students who are placed under tremendous stress from the pressure to obtain competitive grades in middle and high schools as well as the college entrance exam choose to commit suicide. This evinces that the oppressive discipline to attend a prestigious college is “choking” the teenagers into self-destruction. Although severe stress regarding college may temporarily decline once in college, Koreans in their mid-20s soon encounter a similar form of oppressive discipline regarding employment. This is when the gap between the suicide rates of males and females start to noticeably rise because as discussed earlier, men are expected to be more responsible for economical duties than women in Korea.
I have so far discussed how social regulation in both extreme ends can result in suicides; now, I will discuss the types of suicides in Korea that results from extreme ends of social integration.

According to Durkheim, egoistic suicide is a type of suicide that “springs from excessive individualism” (p.209), which is due to insufficient integration. The logic of the argument is, “the more weakened the groups to which he belongs, the less he depends on them, [and] the more he consequently depends only on himself”(p.209). This type of suicide involves a presumption that human beings need “a constant interchange of ideas and feeling from all to each and each to all, something like a mutual moral support”(p.210) in order to sustain. Durkheim argues that there is a reciprocal relationship between suicide and social integration and he specifically uses the integration of family, religion and nation state to support his arguments. Of the three main areas- family, religion and nation state-Durkheim discusses in Suicide, I will use lack of religious integration of a nation to demonstrate how it leads to egoistic suicide in

Korea.
South Korea is a country of no predominant religion, which suggests that the social integration that results from religious cohesion is low in Korea and low cohesion has reciprocal effect on the suicide rates of the country. Durkheim argues, “a religious society cannot exist without a collective credo and the more extensive the credo the more unified and strong is the society” (p.159). On the other hand, “the greater concessions a confessional group makes to individual judgment, the less it dominate lives, the less its cohesion and vitality” (p.159). His way of measuring religious integration is the extent a religion allows “free inquiry” or how much the religion allows individual freedom in interpretation of religious beliefs. Using this reasoning, Durkheim explains why Protestantism is a religion that provides less social integration and for this reason protestant countries have higher suicide rates in comparison to those of Catholic or Judaist countries. In this logic, it is reasonable to claim that a Protestant nation is more socially integrated than a nation with no predominant religion. For instance, United States is known as a predominantly Protestant country whereas Korea does not have a predominant religion. As the suicide rates of the two countries suggest, Korea, a nation with no predominant religion has a higher suicide rate than that of the United States.
While insufficient social integration causes egoistic suicide, excessive social integration causes altruistic suicide. In the case of South Korean suicides, altruistic suicide is especially common among the seniors. Durkheim defines altruistic suicide as a type of suicide that occurs when individuals’ integration in the society is too high that “the ego is not its own property, where it is blended with something not itself, where the goal of conduct is exterior to itself, that is, in one of the groups in which it participates”(p.221). In such case, individuals choose to commit suicide for the benefit of the society.
Optional altruistic suicide is a plausible explanation for exceptionally high rates of suicide among South Korean elders today.

Optional altruistic suicide is a form of altruistic suicide that “are less expressly required by society than when strictly obligatory”(p.223). Korea is a collectivistic society that emphasizes the goals of a collective whole and individuals are expected to subordinate their personal goals. Due to this collectivistic ideal, many elders who are not self-sufficient refuse to become a burden to their children and choose to commit an altruistic suicide. This is largely due to the poor social security and welfare system for senior citizens in Korea. Currently, national policies regarding welfare, public health, education, employment retirement policies presume life expectancy of 80 while the society has moved towards the Era of Longevity. The phrase “Era of Longevity” refers to the notion that our society has entered into an Age in which the average national life expectancy is 100 years and beyond. As a result, Korean seniors are not well prepared for their lives after the retirement. Society should no longer regard elders as subjects to look after but rather provide environment and resources for them to become independent entities who can be self-sufficient in their later lives. In order to do so, national educational policies, after-retirement plans, and public pension systems should reflect the Era of

Longevity.