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Views on Suicid

The intent in this presentation is to discuss 'Suicide' as a social concept using a theory espoused by Emile Durkheim (1858-1917). What makes Durkheim's theory worthy of consideration is the main thrust in his overall doctrine, which was an insistence that we shun biologistic and psychologistic interpretations of behaviors and focus instead, on 'social facts'.
Durkheim insisted that the study of society must refrain from reductionism and lend more weight to a generic social phenomenon. It was his opinion that social phenomena are 'social facts' and therefore, the subject matter of sociology.
In Durkheim's opinion, these 'social facts' have specific social characteristics and determinants that cannot be identified and explained on a biological or psychological level. They are, he claimed, external to any particular individual. From there, Durkheim focused his attention on the social-structural determinants of mankind's social problems - suicide being one of them.
To Durkheim, suicid...

Posted by: Melissa T. Littlefield

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