Lecture 1: Suicide and the collective conscience Notes

Part A: Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) on suicide Durkheim Father of sociology and social anthropology. Looked for a social cause of suicide. What are the shared attitudes and beliefs in a society? Unifying meaning/value. The collective consciousness Collectivism Atomising /Individuality Durkheim used statistics Qualitative aspects of society. Society has a continuity/character/stability regardless of loss and creation of new individuals (cell/body-analogy) Tried to explain things (suicide) socially and not individually (individual causes such as alcohol, death in near family, other personal crises). Wanted to move away from universal explanations Instead contextualize. Suicide rate change with societal changes. In an individually organized society, suicide more likely in event of personal crisis. A society with more social resources Better management (people around you). Poverty/being a minority produces ties and solidarity Less suicides. Example: Norway first low suicide rate Prosperity High rates.

 Thus, Durkheim wanted to move away from psychological factors to social factors of suicide as psychological factors could just explain each incident and not the relationship between the different incidences. If in case of individual explanations , the graph would be very spiked/unstable. But certain stability in rate Emerges from circumstances in society as a whole. Durkheim acknowledged change in suicide rate, but he saw the cause as change in society. Suicide rate in men did not correlate with the number of women in asylums. Social explanation. Durkheim also wanted to move away from biological/racial explanations. In history, Norway low rate / Denmark high rate. Why? he asks. Religion more important than race. German Catholics and Protestants. Protestants 293 / Catholics 87 incidents. (per what?) Individualism / Solidarity Proportion of protestantism in a country correlated with suicide rate. Catholicism Communal solidarity, authority, symbolism, rituals, unburdening of conscience by confession ritual, the magic and mystery of God instead of the word of God, and the shared reality of the catholic community. Protestantism Own language, more individualist thinking, the Word of God, Less symbolism, finding God individually instead of ritually etc. Durkheim Holistic approach Top-Down processing Society as a whole and then go down The opposite: Methodological individualism Individual Society. If religions are in minority Less likely to commit suicide Solidarity and bonding. Egoistic Suicide The individual becomes center of meaning/value Not natural according to Durkheim Alienation from society.

 Factors producing individualism Protestantism Science/Secularism Democracy Secularism Physics, chemistry, biology, psychology etc. Not shared worldviews Specialized knowledge. Educated people have more suicides No unity more alone secular world with diverse meanings, worldviews etc. Exception: Jews A intellectual, but bonding culture Prevents suicides. Also perhaps the doctrine of suicide as sin? Culture of freedom Murders in Norway/USA Attitude to guns Social factor. Durkheim Suicide/murder not abnormal but part of societal structure. Altruistic suicide Social expectations Sacrifice yourself for society Kamikazebombers/Suicidebombers. Anomic suicide How regulated you are by society. Durkheim Suicide rate change if regulation/morals in society change. If obligations change, if economical situation changes. From poor to rich Suicide rate up. New rules for creating life Difficult to find meaning as before. Working class having a limit to satisfaction. To little control by society problems as man is impossible to satisfy. Humans are social creatures vulnerable to social change. Fatalistic Excessive regulation Enslavement, imprisonment, discipline in everyday life in Japan. A way of escaping life. Taking control of something yourself. To little sense of individual self.

Part B: Internet-suicide in Japan Ozawa de Silva Suicide of age in Japan

Altruistic suicide Old age Middle aged suicide Unemployment Economical crisis

Method: Carbon monoxide New forms Charcoal briquettes hydrogen sulphide (2008) The aesthetics of death in Japan Popular culture Love-suicide Dying together / Suicide pact Art, ideal, Meaning in death romantization Comfort in sharing death. Group suicide Ordinary life unbearable Collective suffering Internet group suicide Nature of Japanese society Nature of self Self as seen by others Alienation/Neglectedness Recognition of others Making death social Using others to value self STRONG in Japan Internet A space that youths use frequently Some blaming internet for providing methods of suicide, and means of communication Some argue for its preventive effects Young people prefer online counselling 70% were under 30 years in a service.

 From 1998, Japan rise in suicide rate. Unemployment Economic crisis middle aged suicides Of which is the majority May hide new problems (increase in youth suicide) Young people Bullying, pressure from parents/school/community. Criticism Silva uses only net-forums Do not ask kids, teachers at school /other institutions/helplines etc. Fieldwork Silva does not address cyber-bullying (increasing problem). Government Growing concern Before, suicide more accepted The ultimate individual choice. In a study of young people's thought reasons for suicide: boredom Tired of living Identity issues A critique of life A too controlled life Fatalistic? Term needs modification Not violence, but lack of love and belongingness. However Disrespectful to critique authority, parents etc. Suicide notes, interesting what they do not write Not wanting parents to feel guilty.

Copy-cats of group suicides do occur and psychologists use former event as explanation, it but does not EXPLAIN WHY . Alienation from society Existential suffering Cultural Shame A method of control. People do not want dramatic/painful deaths (A message/cry for help), but want unintrusive, painless death to vanish. According to Silva young people not suffering from mental illness Social problem. Social nature of self more important in Japan. A normality of the whole process, planning, meeting and then actual suicide. Not Durkheim's egoistic suicide. Sadness not necessarily devalued Internet youth tapping into the beautiful in death Suicide pacts gives meaning. Self is objectified of others' perception Fear of social rejection reason for wanting to die with others.

 Different way of looking at suicide in Japan Murdersuicide seen as multi-suicide in Japan. Father who commits suicide-murders belongs to mother and child. Subjectivity is socially formed by poetry. Art, language, people etc. View of suicide.

Seminar:
Ozawa-De Silva Sense-of-self Collectivism/Individualism Alienation Internet Prevents or enables? Dependence on another person Romantization of death Shared experience within a group Cultural trend of suicide Need to be accepted and recognised A different way of talking about death in Japan Radcliffe-Brown Social relations Rites and religions Society as an organism (body) Rituals triggering and validates belief (causal relationship) Social rules of understanding each others' actions rituals for expression Similarities Ritual Unity Escape from everyday life religion as a force outside self that is important Interdependence on community/religion Function Death an important theme everywhere.

Empirical sources: Other's fieldwork (R-B armchair anthropologist) Movies, popular culture, internet-forums Shows trends, but one can not rely fully on these sources. It appeals to the Japanese so it has some accuracy, but still some other sources should be included. Interviews with real people.