Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/481

 SUICIDE IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT STUDIES 467

or the character of the physical environment. Durkheim comes to the following conclusions :

1. Insanity. Durkheim refutes as well the theory according to which suicide is nothing but a kind of monomania (Bourdin) as the theory which considers suicide an episode of one or many forms of insanity, not liable to appear in sane people (Esquirol). As to the former of these theories, Durkheim remarks that, in the present state of mental pathology, the existence of monomania can no longer be maintained. The hypothesis of monomania was based on the conception of distinct mental faculties which has given way to the conception of the organic unity of mind. Clin- ical experience has not yet ascertained the existence of one uncontested case of monomania. There is always in the so-called monomania a general morbid condition of the mind which is the root of the disease, the delirious ideas being but its superficial and temporary expression. Durkheim remarks that Esquirol's theory cannot be admitted without radically restrain- ing the notion of suicide. There are suicides, and they consti- tute the majority, which are committed consciously, i.e. % with the full knowledge of the consequences. These cannot be included in one of the four types of insane suicide generally admitted by alienists : maniac, melancholic, obsessive, and impulsive suicide. Statistics prove, however, the absence of any connection in the manner in which suicide and insanity are respectively affected by age, sex, conjugal condition, race, nationality, and degree of civilization. 1

2. Alcoholism. Durkheim denies the existence of any con- nection between the suicidal rate and alcoholism on the ground of the negative results shown by the comparison of the number of suicides with that of the dttits d'ivresse of the cases of alcoholic insanity, and with the consumption of alcohol. 1

3. Race. Durkheim also refutes the theory which explains the different intensity of suicidal tendency by the influence of the racial factor. Above all, in the actual state of science the word "race" is a vague formula to which nothing definite may

Lt Suicu/t, pp. 20-46. nid. % pp. 46-53.