"Le Suicide"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses "Le Suicide," Emile Durkheim's reportedly "flawed masterpiece" on suicide which was published in 1897. The paper describes Durkheim's theories on anomic suicide and egoistic suicide and discusses how they differ. The paper discusses Durkheim's comparison of the relation to marriage's effect on suicide's frequency to anomic and egoistic suicides.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Flawed Masterpiece
Durkheim's Explanations
A, if not "The" Central Theme
In Light of Suicide's Darkness
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"In Le Suicide, Durkheim purported that anomic suicide transpires when a person's existence is destitute of restrictions and recognition and by other individuals in society. "Anomic suicides, as Durkheim described them, destroy themselves in remorse over their abandonment by society, for they cannot support the loneliness of anonymity." (Siebers)"
"Durkheim contended that egoistic suicide evolves from a person no longer being able to conclude he/she has a reason for living. Egoistic suicides radically reject society, as they are dramatically removed from the "normal social justifications of existence." Egoistic, as well as, anomic suicides reportedly stem from society's inadequate presence in a person or their larger persona. "'Egoistic suicide,'" Durkheim concludes, "'results from man's no longer finding a basis for existence in life'." (Ibid)"

Sample of Sources Used:

• Blackman, Jerome S. 101 Defenses: How the Mind Shields Itself. New York: Routledge, 2004.
• Durkheim, Emile. The Columbia World of Quotations. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. http://www.bartleby.com/66/48/18048.html, 1996.
• Pickering, W. S.F., and Geoffrey Walford, eds. Durkheim's Suicide: A Century of Research and Debate. London: Routledge, 2000.
• Santayana, George. The Columbia World of Quotations. New York: Columbia University Press. Retrieved 14 July 2006 from: http://www.bartleby.com/66/52/48152.html, 1996.
• Siebers, Tobin. "The Werther Effect: The Esthetics of Suicide." Mosaic (Winnipeg) 26.1 (1993): 15+.

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