Soci 210 - Reading Response - Chapter 1

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The first and second categories of suicide are egotistic and altruistic suicide. Egotistic suicide occurs in societies with extremely low levels of integration and altruistic suicide occurs in societies with extremely high levels of integrations. There was a comparison made between different religions and their suicide rates based on the levels of integration that they generally provide. Catholics practice their faith in more group oriented settings while Protestants generally practice their faith on an individual basis. The group activities of the Catholic Church allowed participants to be involved in their communities. On the other hand, individual faith of Protestants does not necessarily build the same level of community. Durkheim observed that there were higher levels of suicide amongst Protestants than Catholics as there were extremely low levels of integration. When we step back and look at the fundamental reasons for suicide within these societal groups, there are clear patterns that indicate more than psychological reasons for suicide. (Corrigall-Brown, 2016)

The second and third types of suicide were anomic suicide and fatalistic suicide. Anomic suicide occurs in societies where regulation is excessively low whilst fatalistic suicide occurs in societies in which regulation is excessively high. Using the sociological imagination, we can understand that larger social problems are clearly at play. In societies in which there is excessively low regulation individuals may feel lost in society which could result in suicide. To the same point, individuals in societies in which regulation is excessively high may feel limited in their abilities to pursue passions and this could result in suicide. Durkheim’s study demonstrates how one can apply the sociological imagination to any personal problem. Though there may be occurrences of unique and completely personal problems, the vast majority can be traced to some larger social factor. (Corrigall-Brown, 2016)

Body Rituals Among the Nacirema presents a different way of using the sociological imagination to step away and look at our lives as a potentially-critical outsider. The Nacirema, American backwards, are presented as a society based on rituals of the body. Activites that are considered normal to North American are presented in a way that, if someone was unaware of who the text refers to, would lead them to think of a primitive tribe from days long gone. Day-to-day activities like using the washroom, grooming, going to the dentist, going to the doctor, etcetera are described in gross extremes. Though this is a radical example of using the sociological imagination to find patterns in societies, it is also an excellent example of how unaware we can be about how our own behaviours might appear to someone with different norms. (Corrigall-Brown, 2016)

Citations

Corrigall-Brown, Catherine. 2016. Imagining Sociology: An Introduction with Readings.Oxford University Press