Essay - Culture Suicidal Tendencies in the Sociological Imagination Suicide Was a...

Culture

***** Tendencies in the Sociological Imagination

Suicide was a groundbreaking book, a case study on suicide, by the sociologist Emile Durkeim, in 1897. Suicide was generally considered to be an individual's tragedy, while Durkheim first opened discussion to suicide as a social problem, making connections *****tween the individual and society. ***** found that Protestants ***** Catholics have very different rates of suicide. According to him, strong social control in Catholic society lowered suicide rates, while the less ***** control among Protestants resulted in higher ***** rates. Social integration, the level ***** attachment people have to *****ir social groups, affects suicide rates. Durkeim found that both high and low levels of social integration can cause ***** ***** kill themselves, either because they have no ***** support, or because ***** do not want to be a burden on society. Suicide ***** are higher for people without spouses or children, and ***** among *****, according to Durkeim. Suicide rates may ***** higher among Catholics than is reported, however, because it ***** considered ***** be a sin, and ********** of this stigma "suicide" might not go down on the books. Durkheim identifies weak social ties as ***** cause of suicide. He also identified four types ***** suicide: Agoistic *****, in which social ***** are week; altruistic suicide, in ***** individuals have no life of their own and strive to blend in w*****h the group to have a sense of being; anomic suicide, brought on ***** dramatic changes in economic *****/or social circumstances; and fatalistic suicide, where one has no hope of change and no chance ***** be free from "oppressive discipline." ('***** [Book]' 2006.)

***** the excerpt ***** Teenage Wasteland: Suburbia's Dead-End Kids (Gaines 1990), we can see that there are many parallels to Durkheim's study from one-hundred years before. Gaines explains how a teenager committing suicide can be a "personal tragedy," but that a group ***** teen*****gers *****ing themselves together is a "matter of public concern." (Editor, 7-8) This is a parallel to ***** Durkheim made groundbreaking connections *****tween the individual and ***** as causes ***** *****. One is able to categorize the suicide of the four teenagers from Bergenfield, discussed by *****, into each of ***** four ***** ***** suicide ***** ***** Durkheim. As an Agoistic suicide, one can see how these ***** had weak ***** ties with their community. According to Gaines, "People in Bergendield openly referred to the four kids ***** 'troubled losers.' Even after they were dead, nobody cut them any slack." (Gaines *****, 8-9) There was little or no social support for these teenagers in ***** community, from p*****nts, schools, or other teenagers. In the categ*****y of altruistic suicide, one ***** see how Ga*****es describes how ***** only is *****re major social pressure ***** be like everyone else, but even all ***** the social outcasts are bulked into a single group. G*****ines ***** how ***** of ***** *****, in th***** particular town called 'Burnouts' were actually a diverse ***** of ***** that "in any other setting all