Analysis Of Emile Durkheim's Views Of Suicide

He later moved to Paris and in 1879 he was accepted to study in Ecole Normale Superieure. As a student in Paris Durkheim became friends with many figures who were respected in their fields of study such as philosophers Edmond Goblot and Henri Bergson. Durkheim himself became involved in many political debates. After finishing school Durkheim decided to become a teacher in philosophy and later became a professor (Durkheim.UChicago 2014). To understand Durkheim’s views of suicide I must first look at the type of society he grew up in to try understand his particular study of the subject. Durkheim grew up in the late 19th century where people were judged on their social class. A man’s family background often cemented his future. Durkheim being born a Jew at this time it is possible that at some point in his life he would have been looked down upon.

Durkheim during the course of his sociological study of suicide he split the subject into four categories two of which are based on

(Keohan.K, 2004) associates anomic suicide with times of moral confusion due to rapid social change. In other words when a society is experiencing an economic boom such as Ireland’s Celtic Tiger and of course when the tiger ended the recession the country experienced. Recessions can cause a surge in suicides, this is due to many young people dealing with joblessness, poverty which leads too depression. Only in 2013 fifteen people died from suicide between the suburbs of cork city (EveningEcho.ie/suicide cluster, 2013). In (Durkheim. E 2002) there is a reference made by Durkheim to a recession experienced in Vienna in 1873 where suicides had reached 153, by the following year the numbers had reached 216, this shows that economic predicaments effect rates of suicides in urban