Émile Durkheim: Sinuciderea – o abordare socială

Abstract

Until 1897, when the French sociologist Émile Durkheim published his study – “Le suicide” – the suicide was regarded as a persoanl action based on a series of individual motivations. What was new in Durkheim’s study was the original approach of the phenomenon, in a sociological perspective: the attention was no longer focused on the individual but on the social group he belonged to, the community power meant to integrate the individual and to force him to obey to common rules and values. In this way, Durkheim distinguished between two kinds of social bonds: integration and regulation. Although Durkheim doesn’t deny the existence of some psychopatological causes, he demonstrates the suicide has social causes, so the suicide is a social fact.
The French sociologist used the clasic method of concomitent variations in order to observe its evolution depending on social causes, on the way they differ from one to another.
Studying the statistics, accordind to a series of parameters – religion, matrimonial status, season, referential group – and comparing the data base with the reality, he could establish some regularity that has effects on the suicide rate. Thus, Durkheim sees the major influenece of integration and regulation exerted on the individual and describes the four types of suicide: egoistic suicide, anomic suicide, altruistic suicide and fatalistic suicid. Durkheim also described the psychic features of the individual for each of the four types of suicide.