The Study of Suicide

Emile Durkheim wrote a text about suicide in 1897. He studied and compared the Protestants and Catholics. He found that suicide rates are higher among Catholics and hypothesized it was because the Protestants had stronger forms of social control and cohesion. He also found out suicide is more common among men as well as single people versus those with a partner and less common among people with children. He also found that soldiers more commonly commit suicide than civilians. Interestingly he also discovered suicide rates are higher during peace times than war times. From these results, he theorized that social factors as well as psychological and emotional factors are the cause of suicides. Specifically social integration. The more socially integrated a person is, the more they feel a sense of belonging making them less likely to commit suicide. Unfortunately, if social integration decreases the suicide rates are higher, meaning someone feels like an outsider making them more likely to commit suicide. From this Emile created terminology to explain different types of suicide. Anomic suicide is when someone feels like an outsider and goes through a sudden change in society and everyday. This makes them very confused causing them to have an extreme reaction, most likely committing suicide. Altruistic suicide is when someone commits suicide to help a cause or for a society. Egoistic suicide is when someone feels totally detached from society and commits suicide. This is often in elderly people who don't have any friends or family left. Fatalistic suicide is when someone commits suicide rather than deal with their life situations. In a psychology article it talks about how fatalistic suicide is very common amongst LGTBQ teens. These teens feel as if they are outsiders in society due to their sexuality. They are considered abnormal and different, because everyone assumes everyone is heterosexual making someone who is LGTBQ, different. This creates a feeling of shame or loneliness. Although I have never directly dealt with any kind of suicidal thoughts whether their my own or a friends, I do know that this is a big problem among teens. Now that they have figured out different types of suicide, they should look into every psychological and environmental aspect as to why this is happening and how to prevent it.