SUMBLOG3 Emile Durkhiem

I really like Emile Durkheim’s ideas on suicide.  I say this because it’s really hard to explain why anyone would commit suicide, and he manages to narrow it down to four logical categories (egotistic, altruistic, anomic, and fatalistic).  With all the suicides that I had ever heard about, I can usually fit them into one of these four categories.  First, let’s take a look on anomic suicides.  Anomic suicide from what I understand results when there is a change in the economy that negatively impacts people financially.  I've heard about people committing suicide after learning that they have lost all the money that they have invested.  Secondly, let’s look at fatalistic suicides.  Fatalistic suicide occurs when there is a high degree of regulation. Institutions such as prisons are where most of the fatalistic suicides occur.  I can understand to why people would rather die than spend the rest of their days in prison.  Many bad things can happen to a person in prison (i.e. rape, unsanitary living condition, bullying, etc.).  So it’s easy to see why some would choose death rather than succumbing to that kind of treatment. Thirdly, let’s discuss altruistic suicides.  Altruistic suicide occurs when a person commits suicide for the good of the group.  This can be both a good and a bad thing.  Take a soldier covering a live grenade to protect his brother in arms.  He is gives his life, so his brothers can live. This is taken to be a good deed.  However sometimes it may not like the kamikaze attackers during WWII.  They attacker is sacrificing himself for the good of the group, but at what price.  The person dies and other countless dies, so is it really worth it in the end.  Nonetheless there is a reason as to why people would do such things good or bad, because it’s for the good of the group.  Lastly let’s talk about egotistic suicide.  To put it simply this type of suicide occurs when a person feels excluded.  A prime example of this is bullying.  Suicides that was committed as a results of bullying continues to be on the rise.  With the internet, cyber bullying is becoming bigger and bigger.  I saw this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XLcfdkkHQE) a while ago and it shows the effect of bullying, and I think it does a good job of it too.  So it’s easy to see why this type of suicide is the most talked about.  Overall I believe that Durkheim’s idea stood the test of time because it is still relevant today as suicides keeps on happening, and we trying to figure out why.