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Suicide in London. An Ecological Study: Peter Sainsbury

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Rosalind Ramsay
Rosalind Ramsay*
Affiliation:
Farnborough Hospital, Farnborough Common, Orpington, Kent BR6 8ND
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Extract

It is almost a hundred years since Durkheim noted that the suicide rate for any country stayed surprisingly constant over time, and differed consistently from that found in other nations. This striking observation led him to argue that a community's suicide rate varied with the extent to which individuals identified with the social group that both controlled and defined their activities. If a group lost cohesion, it could no longer impose such order, and the individual's striving would lack purpose and meaning. So, for example, in times of economic crisis when social controls may be more relaxed, Durkheim predicted an increase in ‘anomic’ suicides.

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Columns
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 160 , Issue 3 , March 1992 , pp. 428 - 430
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1992 

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