I am researching for 3 forms of suicide: the one I know is "egoistic" but somehow I haven't found the other two. Any idea? Thank you

-- britta zimmer (brittazimmer@hotmail.com), October 30, 2003

Answers

You're probably looking for the three types of suicide defined by Emile Durkheim in his classic 1897 book on Suicide: egoistic, altruistic, and anomic. If you use Google to search for "suicide" and "Burkheim" you'll find lots of information on how Burkheim distinguished described these different reasons people may have for ending their lives. Better yet, find a copy of his book--there are fairly recent translations in print. Most encyclopedia articles on suicide also cover Burkheim's theory. Some mention a fourth form of suicide in Burkheim, the fatalistic.

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@earthlink.net), October 31, 2003.

I have that book on hand. It was edited by Simpson, G an republished on 1968. the title of the book is Suicide, A study in Sociology. Three form of suicde are egoistic suicide, altruistic suicide and anomic suicde. The details of each form had been discussed there. thank you.

-- Shirgie Fulgencio (shi_poy@yahoo.com), February 23, 2005.