1.explain durkheim basic arguments on suicide. Can u analyse high suicide rates of contemporary Indian society with durkheim theory. 20M/2018
2.discuss distinct Sociological method adopted by Emile durkheim in his study of suicide. 20M/2017
3.Indebtedness is one of the serious issue leading to farmers suicides Discuss reasons and suggest solutions. 20M/2017
Durkheim work on suicide was the first serious effort to establish empiricism in sociology. An empiricism that would provide a Sociological explaination for a phenomenon traditionally regards as exclusively psychological and individualistic.
Durkheim in his "le suicide 1897" defines as " suicide is any case of death caused by directly or indirectly positive or negative action of the victim himself .which he knows will produce this results".
He took data from police records from various regions of Europe at different time periods.with the help of this data .he established that suicide is a social phenomenon and not an individual phenomenon.He undertook the " multivariate analysis" to establish the relationship between rates of suicide and social factors.
Durkheim most important reason for studying suicide was to prove the power of the new science of sociology . suicide is generally considered to be one of the most private and personal acts.
According to durkheim suicide is neither an individual nor a personal act.it is a social fact . It should be studied by acquired data from outside of our own minds through observation and experimentation.
He give four types of Suicide they are
✓the people who have lost group attachment,they commit suicide beacuse of frustration.
✓here individual is not well integrated into a larger unit -lack of integration.
✓ the lack of integration leads to a feeling that the individual is part of neither society nor the society is part of the individual.
the egoistic suicide implies that the person commits suicide when he thinks primarily of himself when he is not integrated into the social group.durkheim affirms the importance of social forces in case of egoistic suicide also where the individual right to be free of social constraints.
Egoistic environment -> mental distress -> SUICIDE
2.altruistic suicide
✓social integration is too strong
✓generally the person commiting altruistic suicide feel that it is thier duty to do so .
✓ it is characteristic of traditional societies with high degree of mechanical solidarity :- example: acts like sati in india , Soldier in war and recent terrorist attack of 9/11.
altruistic environment -> mental distress -> SUICIDE
3.anomic suicide
✓ this types of suicide occur when regulation is too weak. It is caused due to extreme frustration of an individual.
✓society influence is lacking basically in the individual passions.thus leaving them without check therein.
✓anomic is a chronic state of affairs in the modern socio economic system .it occurs during " industrial or financial crises"
he showed that there was a high rate of anomic suicide among the wealthy as well as divorced persons as most of them are not in a positive to adjust themselves to violent in thier life system and set up .
(A) acute economic anomie :-sporadic decreases in the ability of traditional institutions ( such as religion pre industrial social system ) to regulate and fulfill social needs
(B) chronic economic anomie :-ongoing industrial revolution which eroded traditional social regulation and often failed to replace them, industrial goals of wealth and property were insufficient is providing happiness.( Higher sucided rates among the wealthy than among poor )
(C) acute domestic anomie:-sudden changes on the micro social resulted in an ability to adopt and therefore higher sucided rate exmple : widowwood.
(D) chronic domestic anomie:-marriage provide sexual and behaviour needs balance among men and women ,but bachelors tended to commit suicide at higher rates bcz lack of regulation and established goals of expections.
anomic environment -> mental distress -> SUICIDE
4.fatalistic suicide
✓ it's occur excessive control of society over an individual an act of over regulation- ex:forced marriage
✓ persons more committed this suicide whose future is pitilessly blocked and whose passions are violently chocked :- example: slave who takes his own life because is too much regulation.
fatalistic environment -> mental distress -> SUICIDE
Emile durkheim concluded that:-
1.males have greater suicidal tendency as compared to females- suicide gap or gender differences in suicide.
2.rate of suicide if found more among the bachelors compare to Married people. It protect individual against suicide by integrating individual into stable social relations ( we can use this in functions of marriage )
3.underdevolped countries have less rate of suicide than developed countries :- Example Denmark and Sweden score high on measure of happiness and life satisfaction have relatively high suicide rates.despite of high standard living, good healthcare, low crime rates and access to modern technology - increasing in individulization.
4.on the basis of religion: protestants commit more suicide than Catholics , durkheim reasoned that since Protestant religion gives its members more freedom of interpretation of religion and free inquiry ,they less integrated to Church than Catholics.
5.suicide rates for a given society are stable from year to year and each society has its own rate of acceleration in the suicide rate
7.suicide rates fluctuate with changes in social organisation :- society undergoes a transformation such as industrialization and urbanization , fabric of interrelationships among persons is critical to understanding the rates of Suicide.
Covid-19 and Emile durkheim theory of suicide
Psycho-medical cause for suicide (depression, emotional or socio economic stress ).but suicide is more than that,it also reflects a distorted sense of the social cohesion and solidarity.
Emile durkheim proposed a correlations between social pathology and suicide. It is a state of "anomie" as he called it which reveals the disintegration of norms and values.
Lockdown and anomie:- durkheim concept of anomie is more than evident in the coronavirus era (where every individual poor or rich must contemplate survival alone- lack of access to food and feelings fear, anxiety and hopelessness) without sense of togetherness and in the absence of hope.living and dying become dreadfully lonely experience.
Anomic suicide:-lack of regulation ( economic constraints, extreme frustration, financial crises and love or exam failure )Ex: digital lending platform harassment during lockdown
Egoistic suicide:-lack of integration ( lack of social support and increase in individulization ) Ex:For instance an Assamese labourer in Surat died by suicide in utter despair since HE HAD NO WORK .
this kind of suicide reported just not about psychological factors but reflect a specific character of society (widespread suffering and absense of suicidal hopelessness)
Farmers suicide and Emile durkheim theory of suicide
Using the findings of Emile Durkheim and applying them to the context of farmer suicides in India, we can say that most of the suicides of farmers come under two categories of suicides as defined by Durkheim; anomic and egoistic.
1.Anomic suicide :- is the kind of suicide committed by an individual when a sudden, unexpected event takes place in the life of the individual.
the unexpected events; the unexpected event of crop failure due to some natural disasters or the unsupportive response from the part of bureaucracy and government who are obliged to protect and safeguard the agrarian community, who forms the backbone of the society.- economic rationality
✓ Growing pressure of indebtedness
✓ Rising cost of cultivation and decline in returns from agriculture
✓ Adverse impact of economic liberalisation
Deshpande argue that imperfect market conditions and crash in prices of agricultural produce are major reason for farmers suicide in india.
2.Egoistic suicides :- is that farmers kill themselves due to the isolation and alienation that they feel after a crisis. A farmer, who has lost everything, will find himself as a loser and thinks that he is no more an asset to the society or his family. This emotion is largely due to the response of the society towards the farmer.
✓ Rigid Caste system and poor land reforms :- farmers witnessed the caste-based social isolation.
✓ Lock of social support from family and government:- break up traditional joint family and village community.
✓ Social isolation of diseased farmers : old age farmers, family disorganization
✓Detachment from the family and individulism in agriculture.
✓ Deepening alienation of farmers from society :- as they belong to nuclear families and backward castes.
Mohanty argued that the suicide occur due to the disproportion between the achivement and aspirations of farmers, as an effect of individulization and due to a process of socia economic estrangement from agrarian communities experienced by farmers in the context of rapid economic growth.
Criticisms:-
1.society and social currents which are solely responsible for suicide is not correct as other factors are there causing suicide .so it's an one side view.
2.the thoery of suicide of durkheim is incomplete as he has based the thoery upon a very small number of sample :- j m Atkinson in his discovering suicide contends that quality of statistics used by durkheim in questionable)
3.his data has poor reliability as it is taken from police station which do not include unreported suicide .he also didn't include attempted suicides.
