Name: Tran Quan Nguyen ID: 18319069

Topic & date: Anomie (09/13)

I. Durkheim suicide:

- The text shows and discusses Durkheim’s research about suicide as a social

phenomenon cause stemming from the inappropriate integration of individuals with

their society. From the text, it is clear that Durkheim dismissed and rejected the

conventional definition of suicide and many causes of suicide. Durkheim rejected

suicide as death by personal hallucination, or personal intention, or psychological

dysfunction, or even climate condition. hence, through the process called argument by

elimination, Durkheim came to his conclusion that there are 3 types of suicide

associated with victims’social integration condition.

- The 3 types are egoistic suicide, altruistic suicide, and anomie suicide.

- Egoistic suicide: when society disintegrates, individuals within that society fall into a

state of “excessive individualism” egoism, with less integration to that society. Then

that state would lead to the self-inflicted death, which produces egoism death.

- Altruistic suicide occurs when individuals are too integrated into their group,

community, and society.

- anomie suicide: When individual needs and aspirations are not constrained because

the regulatory functions of society are obstructed by some crisis, they tend to commit

suicide. The reason is that as society cannot perform its function appropriately, it

enters a state of disequilibrium, which leads to the lack of constraints imposed on

human aspiration, which makes happiness impossible

II. Merton social structure and anomie

- The text how inappropriate cultural goals and institutional norms would affect an

individual within a society.

- cultural goals and institutional norms are the two important elements of social

structure. As long as they are coordinated with each other, individuals within a society

would adapt to the “conformity” culture patterning, which includes achieving the

culture goals by institutional means.

- In society, when culturally-induced goals comcomes separated from coordinated

institutional norms, it would lead to several adjustments of how individuals achieve

their goals.

- as individuals adopt and commit to the culturally-induced goals without internalizing

the institutional norms, they would no longer achieve their goals by the socially

accepted means. Those kinds of adjustments are anti-social conduct and deviant act.

- type of adjustments:

+ retreatism: opposed to conformity, in which individuals reject the culture goal

and institutional means

+ innovation: a culture patterning in which individuals would reject the

institutional means and use other illegitimate means to achieve the culture

goals

+ ritualism: When individuals are too committed to the institutional means, they

would obey those means even though they cannot achieve the culture means.

+ Rebellion: individuals who try to create new social orders, create new culture

goals and legitimate means