Suicide Case

Suicide and Psychopathic states:

Durkheim, as mentioned in the introduction, conducted the study of suicide to prove that it was social, rather than extra social factors that influenced suicide. The first extra social factor, to which suicide was mostly attributed to is insanity. Durkheim investigated this theory and pointed out that if suicide was caused by a certain insanity then this would be termed as 'monomania' - in Durkheim's words, "a delirium of localized nature" that is, a person is otherwise normal but has sudden desires to drink or use abusive language. It was believed that a sudden emotional disturbance was enough to provoke monomania. However, Durkheim rejected this theory for two reasons; one, there is no concrete proof to show the existence of monomania, second, mental functions are completely dependent on one another, and insanity is present in one area, then it should also be present in another as well, that is if insanity affects one function it should affect at the other functions as well. Therefore the concept of monomania, where an individual displays normal behavior in every other action but shows absolute abnormality in just one particular action is unacceptable and therefore the idea that insanity causes suicide does not hold true according to Durkheim

Suicide And Normal Psychological Conditions , Heritance:

Durkheim then turns his attention to normal psychological conditions such as race, nationality and heredity to which psychologists attributed suicide to. He believed that to sociologically define race was a difficult task yet he studied the theory given by Morselli regarding race and its effects on suicidal tendencies. Morselli identified four groups on the basis of suicidal rates, put them in descending order and concluded that the Germans had the highest rate of suicides, then came the Celto - Romans, third stood the Slavs and the last group was too small to assess. It was thought that suicides based on nationality rather than race would be a better option to study but in this case too, a nation consisting of mixed ethnic groups would be best to study in order to avoid the confusion that suicide is the cause of a specific civilization. It was found that those nations that were least influenced by the Germans were the ones were suicide was most prominent although Germans (according to the study of race) were believed to be the ones who commit most number of suicides. Thus Durkheim stated that Germans had the highest suicide rate not because of race but because of the social environment present there. The third normal psychological factor that supposedly influenced suicide was 'heredity' as a number of families had shown a tendency towards suicide from generation to generation. But Durkheim rejected this theory of heredity saying that suicidal tendency was present only in those families which were affected by insanity. Therefore suicide from one generation to another was no due to heredity but due to passage of this insanity. Also, he says that if it was hereditary, then it should influence both sexes but from the examples given, it was found that only male members of the family seemed to be committing suicide and not the females.

Suicide and Cosmic Factors:

It was believed that individual inclinations when combined with cosmic factors, or 'cosmos factors' meaning changes in climate or season were capable of activating dormant potential natural aptitudes of certain persons for suicide. But the suggestion on climate can be ruled out as the distribution of suicides cross the globe point out that suicides occur in all climatic conditions nd in all countries, such as Italy, whose climate remains unaltered yet it has witnessed great changes in their suicide rates. Therefore the different inclination of people to suicide mustn't be linked with climatic conditions but must be linked to the civilizations and their distribution in these countries also to shared common beliefs and ideas In case of Italy, it's capital shifted to the centre with the conquest of Rome in 1870 leading to a shift in the economics, artistic and scientific activity and suicide rates, thus proving that social causes, instead of climatic conditions, affected suicide.

Despite common assumptions of suicide rates being higher during the dark and gloomy winters, statistical data point towards suicide rates being higher during the warmer months, without exception in any country. Morselli's studies showed that suicide rates were high during summer because excess energy builds up during summer as life is easy during the season unlike in winter. Ferri & Morselli also said that when weather changes from cold to hot, the organism unaccustomed to heat is shocked ad this leads to suicide but Durkheim said that this explanation doesn't hold true for if it did, the same should happen when weather changes from hot to cold and later when the organism gets used to the weather the suicide rates should again fall but which does not happen. He alternatively believed that the correlation is due to increase in daylight in the summer. More suicides are actually known to be committed in the daylight which, according to Durkheim, is because "this is the time of most active existence and when social life is most intense. Same applies when a distinction in suicide rates is made between villages and cities. He says that suicide rates in cities and countryside differ because in the latter, all economic activity slows down in winter with low levels of production and lesser human interaction because of the atmospheric conditions but during spring the suicide rates increase due to a temperature that favors an increase in economic activities thus leading to increased interactions. Same applies to cities, only its impact is lesser as even during winter trade, science, art etc. are less interrupted and thus social activity is less interrupted and thus suicide rates are also less affected. Thus, Durkheim says that suicide rates seem to change with variations in seasons merely because of the slowdown in economic activities leading to a change in the amount of social interaction further leading to a change in suicide rates (Suicide, pg.104-123).

Imitation:

The last psychological factor thought to influence suicide was imitation. Imitation is a purely psychological phenomenon as it can occur between individuals connected by no social bond. A cough, a dance motion or homicidal impulse is transferrable to another with no social bond or with only chance and temporary encounter. Durkheim defines imitation, saying that when one imitates or copies just for the sake of copying, not because its useful to him or to be in harmony with society but he/she