2. Egoistic Suicide: - it is provoked by the loss of social supports. Elderly citizens who kill themselves after losing touch with their friends and family fit into this category. .
3. Anomic Suicide: - it is the result of marked disruptions, such as the sudden loss of a high prestige job ( anomie' means feeling lost and confused.).
4. Fatalistic Suicide: - it results from a loss of control over one's own destiny.
.
Durkheim's work is important as it brings awareness to the social contribution to suicide.
FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO SUICIDAL BEHAVIOUR.
Freud believed that suicide indicated unconscious hostility directed inward to the self, rather than outward to the person or situation causing anger. Indeed, suicide victims often seem to be psychologically punishing' others who may have rejected them or caused some other personal hurt.
Current thinking considers suicidal behaviour as the end result of a complex interaction of psychiatric, social and familial factors.
There are two important indices of suicidal behaviour - suicidal attempts, where a person survives, and suicidal ideation, where a person thinks seriously about suicide. There are far more suicidal attempts and gestures than actual completed suicides. One epidemiological study estimated that there were 23 suicidal gestures and attempts for every completed suicide. However, it is important to pay close attention to those who make attempts as 10% of them eventually succeed in their attempts.
Males commit suicide more often than females in most parts of the world, but females attempt suicide at least three times as often. This is because men use more violent methods, such as guns and hanging while females tend to rely on less violent options, such as drug overdose. This high incidence may also reflect the fact that more women than men are depressed, and that depression is strongly related to suicide. But depression by itself is seldom sufficient.