EMILE DURKHEIM’S SUICIDE: AN APPLIED SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

A review of the classical work Suicide as originally written by legendary French sociologist Emile Durkheim in 1897, proves why Emile Durkheim is known as the founder of Sociology and a major pioneer of modern social science. In his 1897 Suicide, Durkheim explores what is today, a major challenge across both western and eastern developed and developing societies, especially as a phenomenon of very high occurrence in the United States: suicide. The sociology of suicide is firmly established in Durkheim’s 1897 Suicide, and is as interesting as it is diverse in character, causes, and analysis, as he provides a virtual roadmap for understanding the etiology and pathology of suicide as a modern sociological problem. Suicide has plagued human society, communities, and groups for centuries, and there are many well-known narratives and records of suicide both as a dysfunction and as a functional response to other contextual and ritualistic practices and processes. In his work, Suicide, Durkheim discusses the rise in suicide in France and Europe during his times, and gives us a good definition of suicide as self-inflicted death or death of which the perpetrator is the victim. Moreover, he presents two types of mindsets characterizing suicide; a mind suffering from mental defects as in hallucinations, and a mind sound and conscious of its actions and consequences, yet chooses the way of suicide. In doing so, Durkheim presents the cognitive aspects or psychiatric aspects of suicide. He also examines the various causes of suicide and looks at four types: maniacal, melancholy, obsessive, and impulsive or automatic. Durkheim educates us on suicide being a non-gendered issue and explains the roles of age, religion, race and ethnicity, and hereditary, as well as natural physical factors in suicide. Another three types of suicide is explored in Durkheim’s classic: egoistic, altruistic, and anomie suicide.