Sumblog 3

Emilie Durkheim is one of the most interesting sociologists to read about, because he tackles such a taboo subject of suicide. Suicide has always been a human related subject that is looked down upon in society. However, it has always been around and is not slowing down at any rate. That is what Emilie saw a relation to socioeconomics, whether it was in times of hardship or if it was in times of prosperity. This then fell into relation of how much control the people had or how little control was being held in everyday society. If there was not enough regulation then society would fall into an atomic state. Here more people where known to commit suicide. On the other hand when there was too much regulation then people fell into what is called a fatalistic state, or a helpless feeling where the only way out is to take your own life.

When looking at levels of regulation that society possesses there is also integration or how much people co-exist with one another. When you have regulations that people go threw in their own day to day, even if the norms are not spoken, and a person comes into a new place that has different cultural norms. They will not integrate as easily with others, which could cause stress which could lead to the inevitable suicide, which is what Durkheim was studying. These regulations fall into four categories, Egoistic which is like the earlier statement when a person does not fit into an area or group. Altruistic: meaning that you are so involved with your organization that you will do anything for the cause.   Anomic, here a person may not know there place in society and feel like an outsider and lost. With the last one being fatalistic, here a person is in prisoned or enslaved and they do not know any other way out of there hell then to end it all by their own hand. Durkheim took a step to study something taboo, something that is not looked highly on by society. However, with doing so we now understand a little better of why people may do what they do.