Durkheim in the New York Times

The New York Times published an article last week noting rising suicide rates among the middle-aged. Today in the letters-to-the-editor section, a number of letter-writers shared their thoughts about the article. Jack D. Spiro, a rabbi from Richmond Virginia, obviously paid attention in his introductory sociology class. Here’s what he wrote:

As a rabbi in one congregation for 25 years and as a professor of a course on death for the last 30 years, I have observed this gloom (or sadness, ennui, feeling of emptiness) in this age group.

It is not so much the means as it is the psychosocial and spiritual condition of boomers — what Émile Durkheim described in his 1897 pioneering book on suicide as anomie, referring to a lack of regulation or a breakdown of norms.

To quote one statement from his writings, “Man is the more vulnerable to self-destruction the more he is detached from any collectivity.”

Anomie as a cause of suicide is rare when human beings share their lives in intimate connection with others, when there is a sense of mutual interdependence in the human community.

The breakdown of personal relationships has been a major cause of depression and anomie among boomers. With the impermanence of friendships, unremitting mobility, job insecurities and the breakdown of the family structure, it should not be surprising that the suicide rate in this age group has increased.

The observation about the “impermanence of friendships” is well-supported by recent sociological research (see the full study here).

-- Brian