ABSTRACT
Emile Durkheim’s work on suicide has been in print for well over a century. Nevertheless, his theoretical and methodological frameworks continue to receive attention in contemporary analyses of suicide in sociology, psychology, psychiatry and medicine. 1 Writing in the context of suicidology, Goldney and Schioldann acknowledge that ‘Durkheim is generally regarded as the founder of the scientific study of suicide’ (2000: 181). Berman confirms this view by insisting that no ‘suicidologist-in-training could possibly earn their stripes without mastering Durkheim’s typology’ (2002: 10). Thus, while Durkheim’s work on suicide has shaped the discipline of sociology, it remains historically and philosophically connected to suicidology. In light of this, Durkheim’s sociological theorization of suicide is my first analytical ‘case study’.
