Durkheim has presented a different prespective of suicide.To him as suicide is a social action its root cause lies in the
social disorganisation.Thus the suicide cannot be viewed as an indiavidual action or a personal decision.It is caused by some power which is over and above human control.Thus it is superindividual in nature.As scuicide is the manifestation of complex social conditions ,the diagonasis of suicide must take into account the factors that are definitely sociological in origin.
According to Durkheim man is under constant influence of physical /ecological factors .He is positively or negetively influenced by these factors and committee suicide.
Durkheim's prespective to suicide was not geographical or hereditary in nature.This social action is due to lack of resource availability .this makes a man unhappy as his basic requirements are not fulfilled .At this point of time the seeds of suicide germinates .With lack of social and group support to the cause of suffering of a common person ,the frustration of unachieved goal begins to haunt the individual persona.This leads to commit suicide.
Increasing necessity ,degenration of social values ,lack of exercises of moral controll are few important factors responsible for increasing suicide rates of world.the other factors are ,lack of social solidairty,lack of strong socio religious condition and political stabilty are note worthy.However to Durkheim "The factors for the suicide rate in which he is intrested are then to be found in feature of social milleau.
Durkheim has pointed out three imposrtant types of suicide.these are as follows
Egoistic-When a man becomes socialy isolated or feels that he has no place in the society , he destroys himself.Usually those persons, who are concerned with their intrests only and have nothing to do with other members of the society commit this type of suicide..The rate is more among unmarried person and deserted persons.
Anomic-This is the result of external and unaccepting circumstances which cause extreme frustration to a person.the man being unable to cope with pressure that crops up suddenlty commits suicide and lack of socil control is the key factor for such drastic step.
Altruisic-This type of suicide is somewhat different from th eother two type.In this type man commits suicide knowing that his death would benefit a group or entire nation or of a social cause.this shows the dominance of collective responsibility and group intrest over narrow personnal goals .This is a value oriented suicide.
The suicide theory of Durkheim is criticised on the ground that it over emphasises the role of social control and neglects the geographical and hereditary factors.Though Durkheim agrees that suicide is dynamic in nature and the rate varies from country to country and sex to sex, but the reason of such variance is never sought after. It is merely a social action which is influenced by personal factors and triggered by social disorganisation.