Suicide [Paperback]

Emile Durkheim (Author), George Simpson (Editor), John A. Spaulding (Translator)

Book Description

Release date: February 1, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0684836327 | ISBN-13: 978-0684836324

One of Durkheim's most important works, serving as a model in social theory.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Even for the psychoanalytically oriented reader this book holds more than merely historical interest.  One cannot help being impressed by the wealth of knowledge and the perspicacity revealed in it, and there have certainly been few more compact presentations of socio-psychological problems…Psychoanalysts no less than sociologists will find the study of Durkheim’s book instructive and rewarding.  The editor and translators are to be commended for making the work available in an excellent and remarkably lucid translation.” —Psychoanalytic Quarterly

"Durkheim's contribution was a very considerable one...No investigation of the subject can disregard his views."—American Journal of Psychiatry

About the Author

David Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) was a French sociologist. He formally established the academic discipline and, with Karl Marx and Max Weber, is commonly cited as the principal architect of modern social science and father of sociology. Much of Durkheim's work was concerned with how societies could maintain their integrity and coherence in modernity; an era in which traditional social and religious ties are no longer assumed, and in which new social institutions have come into being. His first major sociological work was The Division of Labor in Society (1893). In 1895, he published his Rules of the Sociological Method and set up the first European department of sociology, becoming France's first professor of sociology. In 1898, he established the journal L'Année Sociologique.

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (February 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684836327
• ISBN-13: 978-0684836324
• Product Dimensions: 4.4 x 1 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #46,238 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #12 in Books > Self-Help > Death & Grief > Suicide
  • #48 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Customs & Traditions

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 51 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Synthesis of intimately personal and powerfully public December 17, 2001

By Charlotte A. Hu

Format:Paperback

Emile Durkheim's classic work tells us more than just details about suicide. Studying a powerfully individual phenomenon from a sociological perspective was, in its own right, an impressive undertaking. But what interests me more for sociology of media is the way Durkheim handled statistics. In the first chapter, he gives a series of examples that illustrate the danger in placing too much unexamined value in numerical data. He shows first that married people commit suicide more than singles, but then notes that single people include children who are unlikely to commit suicide. Therefore this data does not necessarily indicate a causal relationship between marriage and suicide. He adjusts the data, taking only people of marriage age and computes the data again. This time, single people commit suicide more than married people. However, Durkheim then notes that single people will automatically include a larger portion of mentally or physically defunct people. He therefore concludes that there is not sufficient data to make a conclusion about a causal relationship between suicide and marital status. This is really little more than mental exercise, but it is a critical one for any one employing survey methods and statistical analysis. The researcher must be vigilant in analyzing data to ensure avoiding errors in logic.
Durkheim's study in sociology contributes much more than this detail to the social sciences, but for my purposes of analyzing the sociology of media, this is the most critical point.

44 of 49 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating&Intelligent...From a man, who loved his subject March 24, 2000

By "zara_azari"

Format:Paperback

Emile Durkheim is called a Father of Sociology, and rightly so. He was the first man to work on all of the problems and issues, unresolved by other known sciences at the time ( in 19-century), to combine many of the already known scientific methods in one, and to call it sociology. Surely, there were other theorists, his contemporaries, who were starting to wander in the same direction at the same time with Durkheim, but he was the one, who put his own and other people's theories to practice. That is what "Suicide" is all about: gathering data and putting it to test with the theory (suicide, being the subject of the study in this case, of course). The best part about Durkheim's work presented in "Suicide" is that it is still an incredibly potent and groundbreaking manuscript. One, who reads it today, can't help but notice that human nature and human problems have largely remained the same: they are universal and ageless and they still need to be studied by competent sociologists.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Suicide December 28, 2008

By J. Held

Format:Paperback

Suicide is as old a phenomenon as is murder or thievery. It has been looked down on as a criminal act requiring punishment in order to thwart additional acts. In 452, the Council of Arles declared suicide a crime to result in the culprit going to hell. This was followed in 563 by the Council of Prague declaring that in addition to going to hell one would also be forbidden from having any religious memorial during one's funeral. In addition, civil legislation followed with penalties resulting in one's possessions reverting to the lord or baron of the estate rather than to any natural heirs. They went to great lengths in their efforts to eliminate or reduce suicide by torturing the bodies of those who committed suicide. They would hang corpses in the town square or drag it through the streets. These actions were no doubt in frustration concerning their inability to not only understand suicide but also their failed attempts to control it.

Durkheim's study into suicide discovered that suicide is not a criminal act nor is it an individual phenomenon but rather it is a problem associated with our collective conscience or what we term society. The study by Durkheim has had additional benefits other than an understanding of suicide. These would be the methods used by Durkheim for this study as well as to propel sociology to a greater degree of acceptability.

Durkheim's style in this book is similar to that used by Michel Foucault in his series about the sexuality. They both offer hypothesis after hypothesis only to discredit them completely or partially resulting in new hypotheses. Durkheim continues this process until one has no other option but to conclude that he has successfully proved his hypothesis that society is the cause of suicide and that suicide is not only a negative phenomenon but a necessary one. The way in which Durkheim explains this strange required negativity, I would correlate to the unemployment levels in our modern capitalistic societies in that we can never expect to reach a level of complete employment.

Durkheim's contributions to the methods of research used by future social scientists concentrate on the correlation of data to prove causation. He was meticulous in amassing a vast amount of raw data to analysis but he also discussed the limits of the data analyses. This would have implications for future sociologists in that they would be expected to uphold the standards set by Durkheim. Concerning suicide, the problem with data would hem not only on the definition of suicide but also on the unknown instances of the act of suicide. Durkheim defined suicide as, "suicide is applied to all cases of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive or negative act of the victim himself, which he knows will produce this result" (p.44). This definition, however, has some validity issues. How would Durkheim view a soldier during war who rushes into the enemies line of fire knowing full well that he will be killed but if he fails to act in this situation many of his comrades will be killed? According to Durkheim, this situation would be considered a suicide. Many would disagree but Durkheim addresses this by defining three forms of suicide.

Three forms of suicide: Egoistic, Altruistic, and Anomic. Egoistic results from a lack of integration into society. The more individualist one is the greater the risk for suicide. Durkheim feels that society as a whole is moving towards a more individualistic society resulting in increases in egoistic suicide rates. The second form, altruistic, goes against the rule of egoistic suicide in that the degree of social integration is irrelevant. Suicide is committed for the greater good of society so the greater one's connection and commitment to society the greater risk of committing the act. This, however, is a form of suicide usually found only in tribal or lower societies. Suicide takes the form of ritual or sacrifice. This form is also found in the modern army in the form of the example of a soldier committing suicide to save his comrades. The final form, anomic, is correlated to the degree that one is upset with one's environment. This usually occurs during a divorce, loss of a job, winning the lottery, or discovering devastating truths or fallacies. The point here is that the individual is removed from their group in physicality, social status, etc. The supporting infrastructure is upset and one is left to fend for oneself. This can be evidenced by stockbrokers jumping to their death during the crash of 1929 or the lottery winners today attempting suicide. Durkheim does point out that one of the greatest protections from suicide is being poor.

The book is a very difficult read with an almost endless amount of facts and figures resulting in what is termed paralysis by analysis to the general layman BUT as a student of Sociology it is necessary in order to prove his hypothesis.