Atheists and suicide

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

@liam

Emile Durkheim a was as brilliant pioneering sociologists, 'Suide' was still being read when I was an undergraduate in the 1980's and probably still is,for all I know. My perception is that his great contribution in "Suide" was his examination of the concept of 'anomie',for an individual and society, rather than his statistical analysis,which I think is flawed:


Durkheim made his observations in nineteenth century CATHOLIC France. Suicide shamed the family and a suicide could not be buried in hallowed ground. I think it's reasonable to suppose Catholic families would have done all they could to conceal the fact of a suicide. That could well have skewed any statistical records.

Something similar has been found in modern day US with male teen suicides but reversed. It seems clear that in at least some cases called suicide,the actual cause was auto-erotic asphyfxiation. Seems some families would rather believe their son committed suicide than accept he was a sexual being.


To dismiss Durkheim simply on the basis of when his work was done is simply ignorant.

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Liam, the quote below is for those unfamiliar with Durkheim, not to patronise you.

Anomie describes a lack of social norms; "normlessness".[1] It describes the breakdown of social bonds between an individual and their community ties, with fragmentation of social identity and rejection of self-regulatory values.[2] It was popularized by French sociologist Émile Durkheim in his influential book Suicide (1897). Durkheim borrowed the word from French philosopher Jean-Marie Guyau. Durkheim never uses the term normlessness; rather, he describes anomie as "a rule that is a lack of rule," "derangement," and "an insatiable will."[3]

For Durkheim, anomie arises more generally from a mismatch between personal or group standards and wider social standards, or from the lack of a social ethic, which produces moral deregulation and an absence of legitimate aspirations. This is a nurtured condition:

Anomie in common parlance is thought to mean something like "at loose ends". The Oxford English Dictionary lists a range of definitions, beginning with a disregard of divine law, through the 19th and 20th century sociological terms meaning an absence of accepted social standards or values. Most sociologists associate the term with Durkheim, who used the concept to speak of the ways in which an individual's actions are matched, or integrated, with a system of social norms and practices ... Durkheim also formally posited anomie as a mismatch, not simply as the absence of norms. Thus, a society with too much rigidity and little individual discretion could also produce a kind of anomie, a mismatch between individual circumstances and larger social mores. Thus, fatalistic suicide arises when a person is too rule-governed, when there is ... no free horizon of expectation.[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anomie

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@Rev

Jed Bartlett is my favourite US president