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Sociological theories on suicide
Causes of suicide
Sociological theories on suicide
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As I am sure we are all aware that suicide is an event that many partake in but not many people know that it is the 10th leading cause of death in the US and approximately 42,773 Americans die from suicide each year (Suicide Statistics). The act of taking one’s own life is caused by many different aspects and emotions in life. The impact suicide has on family, friends, and the community is very negative and heart tearing that last heart ache forever. The idea of suicide comes about in many ways and reasons that people are unaware of. Emile Durkheim, a French sociologist who examined suicide from a sociological perspective, stated, “Suicide was widely accepted as the act of sick nor disturbed individuals” (Durkheim). Suicide is negatively impacting
Most of the times, the individuals who tend to take their lives are regularly described as the most happy, caring, and smiling kind of people. In the article, Suicide Causes, Kevin Caruso proclaimed, “Over 90 percent of people who die by suicide have a mental illness at the time of their death. And the most common mental illness is depression” (Caruso). The people who seem to be the most happy and full of life, are the ones who are under the most depression majority of the time. Depression can COME ABOUT from a multitude of negative aspects or events one experiences or even from the gloomy environment one is surrounded by. “Although depression may occur only one time during your life, usually people have multiple episodes of depression” (Depression). Individuals who experience those negative life activities that eventually lead to depression, are not receiving the proper treatment or attention to guide them away from the idea of suicide. Getting help and simply talking to someone about their emotions or thoughts is something that is very hard to express due to the fact that numerous suicidal individuals do not wish to put the problem on others and don’t want others to express any sympathy for them. The depression that people tend to get suckered under takes a toll on the thinking and thought processes that one
Finding the confidence to notify someone for help, is very restricting. Searching for solutions is going to always be tough to discover for the reason that one’s thoughts about questioning their importance of their existence on earth. As for suicidal individuals, they do not feel the need to get help. For some it may be they have attempted to perceive a strategy to end their depression but failed to do so, so they assume nothing else will help. For others it may seem that because they can not find the right answer for assistance, they feel the need to give up and take their life. “If you are unable to think of solutions other than suicide, is it not that other solutions don’t exist, but rather that you are currently unable to see them”(Are You Feeling Suicidal). That sentence provides the idea of asking others for guidance in hopes of receiving feedback from different perspectives on additional solutions they may not have considered. Talking one on one with an individual they are comfortable with and anticipating they will understand is the best way to avoid suicide and to get help. It is better to let someone know how one is feeling and notify them of the thoughts one is having before taking action immediately. It can be hard to talk to close friends
The main argument in this article is that there needs to be more ways to help people that are suicidal. The main point of this article is that they want to people to be more aware of how to help someone, and it is also full of information. The topics that are covered in the article are the issues at hand, the background with suicide in teens, and the next step that society needs to take. This article is about helping people that are suicidal and how to help them and let us know the next step that we need to take.
Modern philosophy stipulates that the will to preserve one’s life as long as possible is a fundamental aspect of basic logic and reason. The will to survive as long as possible is described as an innate and natural instinct of being human. Based on this philosophical reasoning, it is inherently illogical and irrational to willingly put an end to one’s life. Sociologists, psychologists and psychiatrists have also condemned suicide by stating that it is associated with mental, social and physical ill-being and that those who commit suicide are not in a rational state of mind. These scientific and philosophical approaches to suicide have contributed to formally documenting suicide as a wrong, irrational and immoral act. The problem is that these approaches see suicide in a generalized manner and do not take into account sub-types and different kinds of suicide such as euthanasia for example, which is physician-assisted and intentional suicide in the case of a terminally ill patient with no possibility of recovering from his or her medical condition. Technological developments in medicin...
Suicide is the act of deliberately causing one's own death. It is often carried out as a result of despair, the cause of which is credited to a mental disorder such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, alcoholism, drug abuse, as well as stress factors such as financial difficulties, troubles with personal relationships, and bullying. It is a tragic reaction to stressful life situations. Suicide is a devastating event with strong emotional results for its survivors and for families of its victims - and the most terrible is that it can be prevented.
This paper is a critical review of the French sociologist Emil Durkheim and his writings on suicide from his book titled ‘Suicide’ written in 1897. Durkheim was seen as a positivist and functionalist. In his book, Durkheim’s goal was to study people’s tendencies towards suicide and to determine the social causes behind them. Suicide, which Durkheim defined as ‘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’ (Durkheim, 1987).
Depression is one of the main three reasons people commit suicide. Depression can happen following the passing of a loved one. It can be very hard and traumatic on anyone. Most people don’t know how to handle the pain. Eventually, the suffering becomes too much and they slip into depression. Some people can develop despair worse than others. Also, over ninety percent of suicides happen because of a mental illness. The
... but in reality they are trying to react to a devastating blow. They need to be reminded that people are hurt for them but do not know what to say or how to say it. Silence does not mean they are blaming or thinking badly of them. Survivors need to release their feelings and resolve their questions. Reading literature on suicide and grief is recommanded. This may offer understanding and suggestions for coping. They may need to seek out a competent counsellor. It is important to take care of oneself in order to help take care of the rest of the family. Alcohol and prescription drugs do not end the pain but merely mask it. These could lead to further withdrawal, loneliness and addiction. There are several hot lines for support groups and suicide prevention. Sometimes it is helpful to contact other survivors of a suicide. Community education is the key to prevention. Suicide prevention services are effective because the person doesn’t necessarily want to die he just wants to stop living like this, to stop the suffering.
Suicide is arguably one of the most major controversies. Suicide is the act of taking one’s own life as a result of a psychiatric disorder that sometimes is brought on with certain life threatening illnesses, stress, genetics, or other influences like physical or emotional abuse. There are many conditions that are known for having suicidal thoughts and ideation as a side effect; major depression, manic depression, or bipolar disorder, anxiety, borderline personality disorder, and many more. Most suicidal individuals want to avoid emotional or physical pain by killing themselves to escape the pain they can’t bear and solve their insoluble problem. Sometimes, suicide is also done out of anger. Suicide may not be the answer to their problems, but sometimes suicide is the only way to escape.
Suicide is the eleventh most common cause of death in the United States. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, a person takes their own life once every fourteen minutes in the United States (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention [AFSP], 2011). Still, with suicide rates so high, suicide is a taboo topic in our society. Though suicide is intended to end one person’s pain, it causes an immeasurable amount of pain and suffering to loved ones close to the deceased.
There are multiple reasons why a person becomes depressed and suicidal. Examples include job loss, death of loved one, and/or drug abuse. According to the American Association of Suicidology approximately 18.8 million or 9.5% American adults suffer with some form of “depressive illness” (AAS, 23 June 2009). Out of the 18.8 million adults suffering with depression 20% of those adults who are left untreated will try to commit suicide (AAS, June 23, 2009). Men are more likely to commit suicide; where as women are more likely to become depressed. “About 7 out of every hundred men and 1 out of every hundred women who have been diagnosed with depression in their lifetime will go on to complete suicide” (AAS, June 23, 2009).
Durkheim, E. (1951). Suicide: A Study in Sociology. (J. A. Spaulding, & G. Simpson, Trans.)
... the evidence changed in his later works). He has been widely criticised for his use of official statistics, which are open to interpretation and subject to possibly systematic misreporting, and therefore may not represent the true pattern or rates of suicide. It is also argued that he was confused between the distinction between egoism and anomie, and that he failed to substantiate his claims of the existence of altruism and fatalism; this is argued to such an extent that it has even been suggested that there is only one cause of suicide (egoism) that Durkheim could claim to be true. However, whilst acknowledging some of Durkheim’s own contradictions or confusions, some sociologists have gone on to develop and substantiate the ideas that he developed, and there is no denying that his study of suicide is a far-reaching and legacy-building work of substantial value.
Suicide is a much bigger problem than society will admit; the causes, methods, and prevention need to be discussed more openly. Committing suicide probably sounds like a foreign idea to most people, but to the people who think about it, they deal with it every day. More importantly, the question is what leads people to kill themselves? In general, most people do not want to actually kill themselves, even though many people joke about it on a daily basis. Being human, we all have a certain amount of will to live.
Emile Durkheim, is the founder of sociology who conceived many theories, in the concept of suicide and its relationship with society. Durkheim’s book “Suicide” makes a distinction between suicide and suicide rate in relation with society. Durkheim conducted his research in a longitudinal study from various countries. He studied the suicide number and compared the mortality rate of different regions. His case study of suicide, explored the differences of suicide rates between social, economic and religious groups. He found people felt intertwine of social surrounding of social factors that produce suicide and, different social classes emerged from the discovery.
Suicide has become a critical, national problem and the extent of this is mind-boggling. Suicides have been proven to be one of the leading causes of death among college students. According to Webters dictionary “suicide is the act killing oneself on purpose”. It derived from the Latin sui, meaning “self”, and caedere, which means “to kill”. But this is just a definition, because an actual suicide holds different meanings to people such as tragic, shocking, a relief, a cry for help, a shame, heroic, the right choice, punishment, revenge, protest, anger, a mistake, desperate, hurtful and many more. But why do people, like college students who have their entire future ahead of them, simply give up hope and turn their heads away from life and commit suicide. There are several causes of suicide, recent incidents of suicide on college campuses, warning signs from a suicidal. I blame the Constitution and the United States law for not taking any hard initiative on the subject of suicide. I also impose the choice of the media, which is reflecting and portraying suicide towards a wrong direction. However most important questions remain: can the growing epidemic of suicide be solved, what are communities doing about it and what can they do to help?
Suicide is one of the most common death around the world. Life is just taking away very easy by someone or yourself. We have study the causes of someone killing themselves, but our human behavior can easy change and eventually make that deciduous. The causes and effects of suicide are depression, the past meaning your life before, and feeling unloved or lonely. The effects are the people that loved you are going to be depress, never reach those goals that you set for yourself, and people that loved you will feel the guilt.