The act of suicide is an event that has been woven in to the fabric of our culture since our country’s inception. In order to conceptualize and define the problem of suicide, it is important to examine the various views of taking one’s own life. Suicide, and its tragic aftermath, has been the source of award winning movies such as Ordinary People and Leaving Las Vegas, along with the public debate, regarding assisted euthanasia, spotlighted in the case of Dr. Jack Kevorkian. Reports of skyrocketing suicide numbers amongst military personnel and veterans have permeated the national news in recent years. Suicide is even linked to martyrdom with numerous Presidents having bestowed our nation’s highest military honor upon military personnel who have sacrificed their own lives. In fact, the very Christian beliefs that this country was founded on, revolved around Jesus sacrificing his own life to absolve the sins of others. Despite this selfless act of intentional death, Christianity views suicide as a grave sin (Slick, n.d.).
Due to the varied characterizations of suicide, we will use the classifications of French sociologist Emile Durkheim. Durkheim published a groundbreaking book Le Suicide in 1897. This case study of suicide broke the act of taking one’s life in to four broad classifications; egoistic, anomic, altruistic, and fatalistic suicide. For the sake of this paper, we will concentrate on the classification of suicide as anomic and egoistic. Many sociologists suggest that the lack of social capital, existence of community networks, civic engagement, civic identity, reciprocity, and trust, is the main cause of suicide. The lack of this social capital leads to disillusionment and disappointment (Kushner & Sterk, 20...
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Sahoo, S., & Mohapatra, P. K. (2009). Demoralization Syndrome - A Conceptualization. Orissa Journal of Psychiatry, 18-20.
Slick, M. (n.d.). If a Christian commits suicide, is he still forgiven? | Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry. Retrieved February 19, 2014, from http://carm.org/questions/other-questions/if-christian-commits-suicide-he-still-forgiven
Speece, M. W. (1995). Children's Concepts of Death. Michigan Family Review, 1(1), 57-69.
Van Orden, K. A., Witte, T. K., Gordon, K. H., Bender, T. W., & Joiner, T. E. (2008). Suicidal Desire and the Capability for Suicide: Tests of the Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicidal Behavior Among Adults. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 76(1), 72-83.
Wal, J. V. (1989). The Aftermath of Suicide: A Review of Empirical Evidence. Omega-journal of Death and Dying, 20(2), 149-171.
Michaelson, Peter. “A Hidden Reason for Suicidal Thoughts”(2013). Why We Suffer. n.pag. Web. 2 Apr. 2014
Durkheim, Emile. Trans. John A. Spaulding and George Simpson. Suicide; A Study in Sociology. The Free Press, New York. 1987. Pgs. 297-325
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.
In a study released by Brown University, their psychology department shed some light on common myths and facts surrounded suicide. These m...
In the past decade, suicide rates have been on the incline; especially among men. According to the New York Times (2013), “From 1999 to 2010, the suicide rate among Americans ages 35 to 64 rose by nearly 30 percent… The suicid...
One of the more shocking and disturbing facts related to the fallout of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is this: the number of suicides among the US active duty military personnel has now surpassed the number of troops killed in battle (Williams.) That number reflects the fact that essentially 22 soldiers killed themselves every day, or one every 65 minutes. This troubling trend has been rising since 2005. In addition, the suicide rate of military members in the US is twice as high as it was before the start of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. There have been many social scientists that have developed ideas about what causes people to commit suicide: individual dynamics, social factors, or a combination of both. Emile Durkheim, in his landmark work regarding suicide, developed four different categories of suicide: fatalistic, egoistic, anomic and altruistic. This paper will discuss the issue of suicides among the military, using the framework of Durkheim’s theory of suicide, and focusing on the fatalistic, egoistic, and anomic categories to explain this alarming phenomenon.
This is an annotated bibliography for research on assisted suicide and how it effects the patient and the family and friends involved. I am researching whether or not assisted suicide is inhumane or dignified upon request of the patient.
...Mood Disorders and Suicide. In Abnormal Psychology (16th Ed.) (pp. 211-262). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
A Study of Suicide: An overview of the famous work by Emile Durkheim, Ashley Crossman, 2009, http://sociology.about.com/od/Works/a/Suicide.htm, 25/12/2013
puts it: “…though death alone can put a full period to his misery, he dare not…a vain fear left he offend his Maker” (On Suicide, p.55). On his famous paper “On Suicide”, he defends the act of suicide and concludes that suicide is at least sometimes permissible. This paper will examine the essay itself in depth and counter argues about his view since the commitment of suicide deprives us from the future possibilities.
It is obvious to the TV viewer that under the banners of compassion and autonomy, some are calling for legal recognition of a "right to suicide" and societal acceptance of "physician-assisted suicide." Suicide proponents evoke the image of someone facing unendurable suffering who calmly and rationally decides death is better than life in such a state. They argue that society should respect and defer to the freedom of choice such people exercise in asking to be killed. This essay intends to debunk this point of view on the basis of mental illness among those patients involved.
Durkheim, E. (1951). Suicide: A Study in Sociology. (J. A. Spaulding, & G. Simpson, Trans.)
Kuklin, Susan. After a Suicide: Young People Speak up. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1994. Print.
Most everyone at some time in his or her life will experience periods of anxiety, sadness, and despair. These are normal reactions to the pain of loss, rejection, or disappointment. Those with serious mental illnesses, however, often experience much more extreme reactions, reactions that can leave them mired in hopelessness. And when all hope is lost, some feel that suicide is the only solution.
In ancient history suicide was condemned to be a morally wrong sin. Plato claimed that suicide was shameful and its perpetrators should be buried in unmarked graves. When the Christian Prohibition came into play a man by the name of St. Thomas Aquinas defended the prohibition on three grounds. These are that suicide is contrary to natural self-love, whose aim is to preserve us. Suicide injures the community of which the individual is a part of. Suicide ...