Durkheimian Theories Applied to Buffalo Creek Essay -- essays research

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This essay will describe Emile Durkheimà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s concepts of social integration and social/moral regulation and will explain how Durkheim connects them to suicide. It will then utilize those concepts to analyze the social effects of the Buffalo Creek flood, as described in the book à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Everything In Its Pathà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?, by Kai T. Erikson, showing other consequences besides higher suicide rates. Durkheimà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s concept of social integration refers to social groups with well-defined values, traditions, norms, and goals. These groups will differ in the degree to which individuals are part of the collective body, also to the extent to which the group is emphasized over the individual, and lastly the level to which the group is unified versus fragmented. Durkheim believed that two types of suicide, Egoistic and Altruistic, could stem from social integration. Egoistic suicide resulted from too little social integration. Those people who were not sufficiently bound to a social group would be left with little or no social support in times of crisis. This caused them to commit suicide more often. An example Durkheim discovered was that of unmarried people, especially males, who, with less to connect them to stable social groups, committed suicide at higher rates than married people. Altruistic suicide is a result of too much integration. It occurs at the opposite end of the social integration scale as egoistic suicide. Self sacrifice appears to be the driving force, where people are so involved with a social group that they lose sight of themselves and become more willing to take one for the team, even if this causes them to die. The most common cases of altruistic suicide occur to soldiers during times of war. Religious cults have also been a major source of altruistic suicide. In Durkheimà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s concept of social/moral regulation, society imposes limits on humans to regulate their passions, desires, expectations, ambitions and roles. When these limits or social regulations break down, the controlling authority the society once had no longer functions and people are left on their own to make their own plans. In societies that have low levels of social regulations, a state of Anomie, or normlessness, can occur and affect the whole society or just some of its groups. Anomic suicide was more prevalent in this type of society. Anomic suicide basically involve... ...e old communities threw all kinds of different people together. At the risk of sounding superior, I feel we are living amidst people with lower moral values than us.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? (208) In conclusion, the flood at Buffalo Creek destroyed the inhabitantà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s very social fabric. This in itself is not unique, but what was unique about Buffalo Creek is that there was no post disaster euphoria, where people who have survived the disaster are uplifted by the fact that the community is still present and viable. That was not the case in Buffalo Creek, mostly in part due to HUDà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s internal policies but also due to the very devastation caused by the flood. The other thing that was unique about Buffalo Creek was that ninety-three percent of the survivors had diagnosable emotional disorders eighteen months after the disaster. Usually survivors of disasters are able to get over it and move on, but the survivors of the Buffalo Creek disaster were not able to do this because of their total loss of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Gemeinschaftà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? or sense of community. Sources: Erikson, Kai T. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Everything In Its Pathà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? Touchstone 1976 I1, http://durkheim.itgo.com/suicide.html, Dunman, L. Joe à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“The Emile Durkheim Archiveà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?, 1999