Interpretivism and Suicide

Question 1

What does Durkheim say?

Answer 1

Believed there were 2 main influences on people committing suicide - social intergration and moral regulation and there are 4 main types of suicide result from too much or too little of these.

Question 2

What are the 4 main types of suicide?

Answer 2

1. Egoistic suicide - too little social integration (lack a sense of belonging)
2. Altruistic suicide - too much social interaction (sense you must sacrifice yourself to others)]
3. Anomic suicide - too little moral regulation (norms change and you lose your place in society)
4. Fatalistic suicide - too much moral regulation (feeling helpless)

Question 3

What does Douglas say?

Answer 3

Argues that Durkheim ignores the individual meaning given to suicide by those who commit it.
He argued against Durkheims approach on two grounds.
1. use of suicide stats
2. did not account for individual meaning. believed that by looking at this we could come up with a list of typical meanings for suicide.