Why Do People Commit Suicide - Term Paper Example

22 February Assignment Suicide is a form of committing one’s own death because of a particular reason; most people commit suicide because they are tired of living, have nothing else left to discover about themselves, or in most cases, due to peer pressure at either home or outside. Suicide has become a very rampant phenomenon since times immemorial; even in history, there have been hundreds of cases of the same. However, today, suicide is punishable by law because even though one may be taking his own life, that is not permitted due to the reason that the body is a creation of the Earth and it cannot be killed without a reason. The reasons for committing suicide over the years have been varying from place to place and situation to situation. Many philosophers and thinkers have written books and essays regarding why they feel people commit suicide. One such philosopher and sociologist, Emile Durkheim, has in fact written about why the suicide rates vary from place to place and not the causes of people committing suicide in the first place. In this manner, suicide is a social issue that has taken over the world, and even though in many cases it does have it pros, it also has its cons, which have further been discussed under the purview of this paper. People commit suicide for various reasons; some may not be happy with the life that they are leading; some people might go into heavy monetary debts and not find a way to repay the people they borrowed from, some people just might not be able to find the meaning of life and get tired of living monotonously. However, these reasons can still be fought and life can still be lived. Death is only another chapter in the life of a human being because no one knows what comes after, (maybe something more sinister, who knows.) Most writers suggest that those who commit suicide are cowards; in this case, it is true. One cannot simply kill himself and leave his family and friends behind. Individuals need to think on a bigger picture and look at the people that are dependent on them – one may have a wife and children to provide for, or parents to give back to, and thus committing suicide for no reason at all is a foolish act because it will not be the end of all the problems. The financial issues will still persist, the hatred and cynical behaviour will also remain after the person is gone and someone else will have to take up the liability of finishing what he left behind. It is wrong for any individual to kill himself and leave his dirty laundry for someone else to do. In the yesteryears, committing suicide was for much bigger reasons; most individuals committed suicide because they were extremely oppressed by the rule that persisted in their lands before, many even committed suicides because of the heavy debts they would go into because of sharecropping and farming, with respect to their landlords. Taxes and rents were so high at that time that the poor people would find it extremely difficult to get out of those situations and would thus end up killing themselves to free themselves of all that bondage and labour work. Most philosophers and thinkers associate suicide with a psychological activity of the mind; they say that people commit suicide not because of anything from the outside, but because they do not have the will to live anymore. When this determination fails them, they begin to get depressed and make themselves feel lonely. Thus, it is all in the mind. Emile Durkheim, a sociologist who wrote an essay regarding social suicidal rates and why they varied across different groups of people and communities, went through the public suicide reports of UK, Austria, Prussia, Germany and France. In his essay, which was published in the year 1897, he wrote about the discrepancy in suicidal rates and said that the same was caused because of external factors in an individual’s environment rather than in his own mind. According to Durkheim, people are pressured by society in terms of marriage, family, religion, education etc, and all these factors lead people to want to give up the will to live eventually because of whatever the reasons might be. For example, in many countries around the world even today, young women are married off to men not of their choice and at very young ages, are forced to start families and manage the housework. Most of these women are not able to cope with such pressures and due to such unhappy married and family lives, they do not want to live anymore. Durkheim, in his theory, talked about four different kinds of suicides that persist; egoistic, altruistic, anomic and fatalistic suicides. He stated that these four types fall under the category of social integration and regulation and are based and caused because of the same. Integration refers to the degree of mixing of an individual with the whole of society and regulation refers to the degree by which an individual may be controlled by society with respect to norms and values. Under these two main heads, when the integration or regulation may be at the extreme poles, people tend to commit suicide because of extreme pressure. Egoistic suicide takes place amongst people who tend to keep to themselves and not share their ideas and thoughts with others. They tend to be very bitter and do not like discussing views with others right from the start. Egoism refers to a state of mind where a person detaches himself completely from society and thus tends to feel very aloof and alone all the time, and ends up committing suicide. Altruistic form of suicide occurs when people become very prone to sharing their ideas and thoughts with others and maintain a very high degree of integration with society. For example, in many tribes and clans around the world, societal pressure and integration is a lot leaving almost no room for individual autonomy which leads a person to stop thinking for him and begin thinking on a level of collective conscience, which may not always be for the best. On the other hand, when the level of social regulation is extremely high and a person is pressured by society to do as it says, he tends to commit the fatalistic form of suicide. This occurs usually among slaves and bonded labourers who are forced to do as their masters tell them to and have no freedom or sense of personal liberation. The last form, known as anomic suicide occurs in modern industrial societies where because of extreme specialization in their fields of work, people begin to feel detached from each other and nothing seems to unite them, leaving them feeling very awry with a void in their lives, which they hope to fill by taking their own lives. In conclusion, suicide should be looked at as a perspective rather than an idea to be discouraged. Not every individual commits suicide because he is ‘sick’ of life; some even have a reason to do the same. It is a subjective matter and varies from person to person; however it has more demerits than merits. People should be happy about living strong and healthy lives and understand that it is their job to makes themselves happy and cheerful. Living in a sad and lowly form all throughout is not good for anyone, and will tend to make anyone not want to live anymore. No matter what the situation might be, an individual must be able to take an initiative to turn things around and let himself know that committing suicide might just end up causing more problems than it should end. Works Cited Durkheim, Emile. 1897. “Theory of Suicide”. Print. “Suicide.” Answers.com. Answers. Web. 24 Feb 2012. . Suicide (1897)." Durkheim Home Page. Web. 25 Feb. 2012. . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 20 Oct. 2011. Web. 25 Feb. 2012. . "Suicide" American psychological association. Web. 25 Feb 2012m. Read More