Emile Durkheim - Suicide

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Emile Durkheim felt that humans have desires that result in chaos unless society limits them. He said a force must be used to limit them. That force is socialization and social integration. Socialization - helps us learn society's rules and the need to cooperate, as people end up generally agreeing on important norms and values. Social Integration - our ties to other people and to social institutions such as religion and the family, helps socialize us and integrate us into society and reinforce our respect for its rules. The two things establish a strong set of social rules that are needed for a stable society; he called this a moral cocoon.

He believed that suicide is a result from the weakening of society's moral cocoon. He explained that anomie (normlessness) occurs when situations, such as periods of rapid social change, when social norms are weak and unclear or social ties are weak. Once anomie sets in, people become more about how to deal with problems in their life. Their aspirations are no longer limited by society's constraints and thus cannot be fulfilled.