Question

9. How does Durkheim explain suicide? How do people value their emotions, thoughts, beliefs, actions, and attitudes?

Answer 1

According to Durkheim,

the term 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.

In his view, suicide comes in four kinds:

• Egoistic suicide reflects a prolonged sense of not belonging, of not being integrated in a community. It results from the suicide's sense that s/he has no tether. This absence can give rise to meaninglessness, apathy, melancholy, and depression.Durkheim calls such detachment "excessive individual . Those individuals who were not sufficiently bound to social groups (and therefore well-defined values, traditions, norms, and goals) were left with little social support or guidance, and were therefore more likely to commit suicide. Durkheim found that suicide occurred more often among unmarried people, especially unmarried men, whom he found had less to bind and connect them to stable social norms and goals.
• Altruistic suicide is characterized by a sense of being overwhelmed by a group's goals and beliefs.It occurs in societies with high integration, where individual needs are seen as less important than the society's needs as a whole. They thus occur on the opposite integration scale as egoistic suicide.As individual interest would not be considered important, Durkheim stated that in an altruistic society there would be little reason for people to commit suicide. He described one exception: when the individual is expected to kill her/himself on behalf of society, for example in military service.
• Anomic suicide reflects an individual's moral confusion and lack of social direction, which is related to dramatic social and economic upheaval.it is the product of moral deregulation and a lack of definition of legitimate aspirations through a restraining social ethic, which could impose meaning and order on the individual conscience. This is symptomatic of a failure of economic development and division of labour to produce Durkheim's organic solidarity.People do not know where they fit in within their societies. Durkheim explains that this is a state of moral disorder where people do not know the limits on their desires and are constantly in a state of disappointment. This can occur when they go through extreme changes in wealth; while this includes economic ruin, it can also include windfall gains – in both cases, previous expectations from life are brushed aside and new expectations are needed before they can judge their new situation in relation to the new limits.
• Fatalistic suicide occurs when a person is excessively regulated, when their futures are pitilessly blocked and passions violently choked by oppressive discipline.It is the opposite of anomic suicide, and occurs in societies so oppressive their inhabitants would rather die than live on. For example, some prisoners might prefer to die than live in a prison with constant abuse and excessive regulation.

These four types of suicide are based on the degrees of imbalance of two social forces: social integration and moral regulation.Durkheim noted the effects of various crises on social aggregates – war, for example, leading to an increase in altruism economic boom or disaster contributing to anomie.

Emotions:

By adulthood, the value meaning of emotions carries a constant On a conscious level, the weaker streams of emotion mark less important levels of value: We want vacations to go well and get disappointed if they don't. The stronger ones, with the most forceful motivations, normally go to the very deepest values: We're impassioned about protecting children and devastated by loss of a loved one.

For example, if you are hungry, you will feel slightly uncomfortable looking at a candy bar in the grocery store checkout line. That vague, uncomfortable feeling inhibits a primitive, toddler-like urge to take the candy. For the most part, only those people whose personal values do not preclude stealing candy will ever have a conscious thought about taking it. Most of us do not have to consciously think of taking the candy or think of what would happen if we did because the value meaning of our emotions inhibits the impulse. The most we may feel while looking at the candy is a vague discomfort. Developing this kind of value-inhibition in children is what we mean by teaching them right from wrong. Emphasizing fear of consequences merely teaches them to avoid punishments.

Beliefs:

A belief is an idea that a person holds as being true.

A person can base a belief upon certainties (e.g. mathematical principles), probabilities or matters of faith.

A belief can come from different sources, including:

• a person’s own experiences or experiments
• the acceptance of cultural and societal norms (e.g. religion)
• what other people say (e.g.education or mentoring).

A potential belief sits with the person until they accept it as truth, and adopt it as part of their individual belief system.

Each person evaluates and seeks sound reasons or evidence for these potential beliefs in their own way.

Once a person accepts a belief as a truth they are willing to defend, it can be said to form part of their belief system.

Attitude:

Attitudes are the mental dispositions people have towards others and the current circumstances before making decisions that result in behaviour. People primarily form their attitudes from underlying values and beliefs.

However, factors which may not have been internalised as beliefs and values can still influence a person’s attitudes at the point of decision-making. Typical influences include the desire to please, political correctness, convenience, peer pressure, and psychological stressors.

Personal values:

Values are stable long-lasting beliefs about what is important to a person. They become standards by which people order their lives and make their choices.

A belief will develop into a value when the person’s commitment to it grows and they see it as being important.

It is possible to categorise beliefs into different types of values – examples include values that relate to happiness, wealth, career success or family.  

A person must be able to articulate their values in order to make clear, rational, responsible and consistent decisions.