22 sociology theory questions (Durkheim, Emile ).short answers

CHAPTER 2 EGOISTIC SUICIDE

grRST let us see how the different religious confessions affect suicide.

I

If one casts a glance at the map o~ Eur.opean s~icide, it is at once clear that in purely Catholic countri:s .like .spam, .Portu~al, Italy, suicide is very little developed, while 1t 1s at its max1mu?1 m Protes- tant countries, in Prussia, Saxony, Denmark. The following averages compiled by Morselli confirm this first conclusion:

Average of Suicides per

MIiiion Inhabitants

Protestant states . 190 Mixed states ( Protestant and Catholic) ;i Catholic states Greek Catholic states 40

The low proportion of the Greek Catholics cann~t be surely attrib- uted to religion; for as their civilization is very different from that of the other European nations, this di~er7nce of culture may be the · · cause of their lesser aptitude. But this .is not the case with most Catholic or Protestant societies. To be sure, they are not all on the same intellectual and moral level; yet the resemblanc~s are ~uffi- ciently essential to make it possible to ascribe to conf ess,onal differ- ences the marked contrast they offer in respect to suicide. .

Nevertheless, this first comparison is still too summary. In .spite of undeniable similarities, the social enviro~ments of t~~ ~nh~b1tants of these different countries are not identical. The ov1ltzat1ons of Spain and Portugal are far below that of Germany and this inferiority

152 . '

EGOISTIC SUICIDE 153

may conceivably be the reason for the lesser development of suicide which we have just mentioned. If one wishes to avoid this source of error and determine more definitely the influence of Catholicism and Protestantism on the suicidal tendency, the two religions must be compared in the heart of a single society.

Of all the great states of Germany, Bavaria has by far the fewest suicides. There have been barely 90 per million inhabitants yearly since 1874, -while Prussia has 133 (1871-75), the duchy of Baden 156, Wurttemberg 162, Saxony 300. Now, Bavaria also has most Catholics, 713.2 to 1,000 inhabitants. On the other hand if one com-. '

Bavarian Provinces (1867-75) * Provinces w. Provinces w. Provinces w.

Catholic Suicides Catholic Suicides More Than Suicides Minority (less per Million Molori~ (50 Per Million 90% Per Million

than 5096} Inhabitants to 90 %,) Inhabitants Catholic Inhabitants

Rhenish Upper Palatinate 167 Lower Franconia 157 Palatinate 64

Central Upper Franconia 207 Swobio 118 Bavaria 114

Upper Lower Franconia 204. Bavaria 19

Average ffi Average 135 Average Ts' • The population below l 5 years hos been omitted.

pares the different provinces of Bavaria, suicides are found to be in direct proportion to the number of Protestants and in inverse pro- portion. to that of Catholics ( See Table above). Not only the pro- portions of averages to one another confirm the law but all the numbers of the firs~olum are higher than those of the second and those of the second 'gher than those of the third without exception.

It is the same wit Prussia:

Pruuian Provinces (1883-90) Provinces wltlt Suicides Provinces with Suicides More Than 90% per MIiiion from, 89 to 68% per MIiiion

Protestant Inhabitants , Protestant Inhabitants

Saxony 309.4 Hanover 212.3 Schleswi9 312.9 Hesse 200.3 Pomerania 171.5 Brodenburg and Berlin 296.3

E. Prussia 171.3

Average 264.6 Average 220.0

Provinces with Suicides Provinces with Suicides from 40 to 50% f.'" MIiiion from 32 to 28% per Million

Protestant nhabltants Protestant Inhabitants

W. Prussia 123.9 Posen 96.4 Silesia 260.2 Rhineland 100.3 Westphalia 107.5 Hohenzollern 90.1

Average 163T Average 95.6

SUICIDB 154

There are only two slight irregularities, among the 14 provinces thus compared, so far as detail is co~~emed; Silesia, ~hich because of its relatively high number of su1c1des should be m th~ second category, is only in the third, while on th_e contrary Pomerama would be more in its place in the second than m the first _colum. .

Switzerland forms an interesting study from this same pomt of view. For as both French and German populations exist there, the influence of the confession is observable separately on each race. Now, its influer.ce is the same on both. Catholic cantons show four and five times fewer suicides than Protestant, of whichever na·

tionality.

French ContoM

Catholics

Protestants

83 suicides per million

Inhabitants

· 453 suicides per million

Germon Cantons

Catholics 87 suicides

Protestants 293 suicides

Total of Cantons of All Hotlonolitln

Catholics

Mixed

Protestants

86. 7 suicides

212.0 suicides

326.3 suicides

Confessional influence is therefore so great as to dominate all

others. . Besides, in a fairly large number of cases the numbe~ of suicides

per million inhabitants of the po.pulation of each conf ~ss1on has ~een directly determined. The followmg figures were obtamed by various

observers: ' .

T .ABLE XVI I I-Suicides in Different Countries per Million Persons of Each Confession

Protestants Catholics '''" Hamn of Observen

Austria - 11852-591 79.5 51.3 20. 7 Wagner Prussia 11849 551 159.9 · 49.6 46.4 Id. Prussia 1186,::721 187 69 96 Morselll Prussia 118901 240 100 180 Prinzing B d 11852-621 139 117 87 Legoyt B~d:: (1870-741 171 136.7 124 Morselll Baden 11878-881 242 170 210 Prlnzin9 Bavaria 11844-561 135.4 49.l 105,9 Morselh Bavaria 11884-911 224 94 193 Prinzing Wurttemberg 11846-601 113.5 77.9 65,6 Warer Wurttemberg 11873-761 190 120 60 Dur helm Wurttemberg 11881-901 170 119 142 Id.·

Thus, everywhere without exception, 1 Protestants ~how far m~re suicides than the followers of other confessions. The d1ffere_nce vanes

1 We have no data on confessional influence in France, Leroy, however, tells "?s the following in his study on Seine-et-Marne: in_ the communes of Quincy, N~teud- les-Meaux, Mareuil, Protestants show one suicide to 310 inhabitants, Catholics I to

678 (op. ,it., p. 203).

EGOISTIC SUICIDE 155

between a minimum of 20 to 30 per cent and a maximum of 300 per cent. It is useless to invoke with Mayr 2 against such a unani- mous agreement of facts, the isolated case of Norway and Sweden which, though Protestant, have only an average number of suicides. First, as we noted at the beginning of this chapter, these interna- tional comparisons are not significant unless bearing on a consider- able number of countries, and even in this case are not conclusive.

' There are sufficiently great differences between the peoples of the Scandinavian peninsula and those of Central Europe for it to be reasonable that Protestantism does not produce exactly the same effects on both. But furthermore, if the suicide-rate is not in itself very high in these two countries, it seems relatively so if one con· siders. ~heir modest rank among the civilized peoples of Europe. There 1s no reason to suppose that they have reached an intellectual level above Italy, to say the least, yet self-destruction occurs from twice to three times as often (90 to _100 suicides per million in· habitants as against 40). May Protestantism not be the cause of this relatively_ higher fi~~h-us the f~ct. not only does not tell against the law JUSt establtshe n the baS1S of so many observations, but rather tends to confirm it. _ The aptitude of Jews for suicide is always less than that of Protes· tants; in a very general way it is also, though to a lesser degree, lower than that of Catholics. Occasionally however, the latter relation is reversed; such cases occur especially in recent times. Up to the middle of the century, Jews killed themselves less· frequently than Catholics in all countries but Bavaria; 4 only towards 1870 do they begin to lose their ancient immunity. They still very rarely greatly exceed the rate for Catholics. ·Besides, it must be remembered that Jews live more exc_lusively than other confessional groups in cities and are in intellec· tual occupations. On this account they are more inclined to suicide than the members of other confessions, for reasons other than their religion. If therefore the rate for Judaism is so low, in spite of this

2 Handworlerbuch der Staatswiuenuhaften, Supplement, Vol. I, p. 702. _ 3 The case of England is exceptional, a non-Catholic country where suicide is in-

frequent. It will be explained below. 4 Bavaria is still the only exception: Jews there kill themselves twice as often as

Catholics. Is there something exceptional about the· position of Judaism in this country? We do not know.

SUICIDE

aggravating circumstance, it may be assumed that other things being equal, their religion has the fewest suicides of all.

These facts established, what is their explanation?

II

If we consider that. the Jews are everywhere in a very small minor- ity and that in most societies where the foregoing observations were made, Catholics are in the minority, we are tempted to find in these facts the cause explaining the relative rarity of voluntary deaths in these two confessions. 5 Obviously, the less numerous confessions, facing the hostility of the surrounding populations, in order to main- tain themselves are obliged to exercise severe control over themseives and subject the.mselves to an especially rigorous discipline.To justify the always precarious tolerance granted them, they have to practice greater n:iorality. Besides these considerations, certaia facts seem really to imply that this special factor has some influence. In Prussia, the minority status of Catholics is very pronounced, since they are only a third of the whole population. They kill themselves only one third as often as the Protestants. The difference decreases in Bavaria where two thirds of the inhabitants are Catholics; the voluntary deaths of the latter are here only in the proportion of 100 to 275 of those of Protestants or else of 100 to 238, according to the period. Finally, in the almost entirely Catholic Empire of Austria, only r 5 5 Protestant to 1 oo Catholic suicides are found. It would seem then that where Protestantism becomes a minority its tendency to suicide decreases.

But first, suicide is too little an object of public condemnation for the slight .measure of blame attaching to it to have such influence, even on minorities obliged by their situation to pay special heed to public opinion. As it is an act without offense to others, it involves no great reproach to the groups more inclined to it than others, and is not apt to increase greatly their relative ostracism as would cer- tainly be the case with a greater frequency of crime and misdemeanor. Besides, when religious intolerance is very pronounced, it often pro- duces an opposite effect. Instead of exciting the dissenters to respect opinion more, it accustoms them to disregard it. When one feels him- self an object of inescapable hostility, one abandons the idea of con-

5 Legoyt, op. dt., p. 205: Oettingen, Mo,a/statistik, p. 654.

· ..

EGOISTIC SUICIDE 157

ciliating i~ and is the more resolute in his most unpopular observ- ances. This has frequently happened to the Jews and thus their exceptional immunity probably has another cause. . An_yway, this explanation would not account for the respective

situation of Protestants and Catholics. For though the protective in- fluence of Catholicism is less in Austria and Bavaria, where it is in the majority, it is still considerable. Catholicism does not therefore owe thi~ solely to its minority status. More generally, whatever the proportional _share of !hese two confessions in the total population, wher~~er their comparison has been possible from the point of view of su1C1de, Protestants are found to kill themselves much more of ten than Catholics. 1?ere a~e even countries like the Upper Palatinate and Upper Bavana, where the population is almost wholly Catholic (92 and 96 p_e: cent) and where there are nevertheless 300 and 423 ~rotestant smc1des to. I oo Catholic suicides. The proportion even nses to 52~ per cent m Lower Bavaria where the reformed religion has not quite one follower to 100 inhabitants. Therefore, even if the · p~udence incumbent on minorities were a partial cause of the great difference between the two religions, the greatest share is certainly due to other causes. ·

We shall find these other causes in the nature of these two reli- gious systems. Yet they both prohibit suicide with equal emphasis; not only do they renalize it morally with great severity, but both !each that a ~ew. life ~gins beyond the tomb where men are pun- 1~hed for their e~1I. actions, and Protestantism just as well as Catholi- c1_s~. numbers su1~1?e among them. Finally, in both cults these pro- h1_b1tto~s are of d1vme origin; they are represented not as the logical conclusion ~f correct reason, but God Himself is their authority. T~e.refo~e,. if Protestantism is less unfavorable to the development of s~mde, 1t 1s not because of a different attitude from that of Catholi- CIS_m. Th.us, if both religi?ns _ha:,re. the _same precepts with respect to this parttCular matter, their d1ss1mtlar influence on suicide must pro- ceed from one of th~ mo~e general characteristics differentiating them.

1:he ~nly essential difference between Catholicism and Protes- tantism 1s that the second permits free inquiry to a far greater degree than the first. Of course, ~atholicism by the very fact that it is. an ~dealistic ~i.on concedes a far greater place to thought and reflection than Gre -Latin polytheism or Hebrew monotheism. It is

~ . .

158 SUICIDE

not restricted to mechanical ceremonies but seeks the control of the conscience. So it appeals to conscience, and even when demanding blind submission of reason, does so by employing the language of reason. None the less, the Catholic accepts his faith ready made, with- out scrutiny. He may not even submit it to historical examination since the original texts that serve as its basis are proscribed. A whole hierarchical system of authority is devised, with marvelous ingenuity, to render tradition invariable. All variation is abhorrent to Catholic thought. The Protestant is far more the author of his faith. The Bible is put in his hands and no interpretation is imposed upon him. The very structure of the reformed cult stresses this state of religious in- dividualism. Nowhere but in England is the Protestant clergy a hierarchy; like the worshippers, the priest has no other source but himself and his conscience. He is a more instructed guide than the run of worshippers but with no special authority for fixing dogma. But what· best proves that this freedom of inquiry proclaimed by the founders of the Reformation has not remained a Platonic affirmation is the increasing multiplicity of all sorts of sects so strikingly in contrast with the indivisible unity of the Catholic Church.

We thus reach our first conclusion, that the proclivity of Protes- tantism for suicide must relate to the spirit of free · inquiry that animates this religion. Let us understand this relationship correctly. Free inquiry itself is only the effect of another cause. When it appears, when men, after having long received their ready made faith from tradition, claim the right to shape it for themselves, this is not because of the intrinsic desirability of free inquiry, for the latter in- volves as much sorrow as happiness. But it is because men henceforth need this liberty. This very need can have only one cause: the over- throw of traditional beliefs. If they still asserted themselves with equal energy, it would never occur to men to criticize them. If they still had the same authority, men would not demand the right to verify the source of this authority. Reflection develop~ only if its de- velopment becomes imperative, that is, if certain ideas and instinctive sentiments which have hitherto adequately guided conduct are found . to have lost their efficacy. Then reflection intervenes to fill the gap that has appeared, but which it has not created. Just as reflection dis- appears to the extent that thought and action take the form of auto- matic habits, it awakes only when accepted habits become disorgan-

EGOISTIC SUICIDE 159

ized. It asserts its rights against public opinion only when the latter loses st~ength, that is, when it is no longer prevalent to the same ~xtent._ If these assertions occur not merely occasionally and as pass- mg crises, but become chronic; if individual consciences keep re- affirming their autonomy, it is because they are constantly subject to conflicting impulses, because a new opinion has not been formed to replace the one no longer existing. If a new system of beliefs were constituted which seemed. as indisputable to everyone as the old, no one would think of discussing it any longer. Its discussion would no longer even be permitted; for ideas shared by an entire so<;iety draw from this consensus an authority that makes them sacrosanct and raises them above dispute. For them to have become more tolerant, they must first already have become the object of less general and complete assent and been weakened by preliminary controversy.

Tl~us: if it. is co~rect to say that free inquiry once proclaimed, multiplies schisms, it must be added that it presupposes them and ?erives from the~, for it is claimed and instituted as a principle only m order to permit latent or half-declared schisms to develop more freely. So if Protestantism concedes a greater freedom to individual thought than Catholicism, it is because it has fewer common beiief s and practices. Now, a religious society cannot exist without a col- . lective credo and the more extensive the credo the more unified and strong !s th~ society.\ .For it does not unite men by an exchange and reoproc1ty of serv1ees, a temporal bond of union which permits and even presupposes differences, but which a religious society cannot f~rm. It socializes men only by attaching them completely to an iden-

. heal body of doctrine and socializes them in proportion as this body of doctrine is extensive and firm. The more numerous the manners

. ?f action and thought of a religious character are, which are accord- ~qgly ~emoved f~om fre~ inquiry, the more the idea of God presents itself 1~ all ?etads of existence, and makes individual wills converge to one identical goal. Inversely, the greater concessions a confessional group makes to individual judgment, the less it dominates lives, the less its cohesion and vitality. We thus reach the conclusion that the

. sup~riority of Protestantism with respect to suicide results from its being a less strongly integrated church than the Catholic church.

Thi_s also explains the situation of Judaism. Indeed, the reproach to wh1Ch the Jews have for so long been exposed by Christianity has

160 SUICIDE

created feelings of unusual solidarity among them. Their need of re- sisting a general hostility, the very impossibility of free communica- tion with the rest of the population, has forced them to strict union among themselves. Consequently, each community became. a small, compact and coherent society with a strong feeling of self-conscious- ness and unity. Everyone thought and lived alike; individual di- vergences were made almost impossible by the community of exist- ence and the close and constant surveillance of all over each. The Jewish church has thus been more strongly united than any other, from its dependence on itself because of being the object of intol- erance. By analogy with what has just been observed apropos of Protestantism, the same cause must therefore be assumed for the slight tendency of the Jews to suicide in spite of all sorts of circum- stances which might on the contrary incline them to it. Doubtless they owe this immunity in a sense to the hostility surrounding them. But if this is its influence, it is not because it imposes a higher mo- rality but because it obliges them to live in greater union. They are immune to this degree because their religious society is of such soli- darity. Besides, the ostracism to which they are subject is only one of the causes producing this result; the very nature of Jewish beliefs must contribute largely to it. Judaism, in fact, like all early religions,

,consists basically of a body of practices minutely governing all the details of life and leaving little free room to individual judgment.

III Several facts confirm this explanation. First, of all great Protestant countries, England is the one where

suicide is least developed. In fact, only about So suicides per million . inhabitants are found there, whereas the reformed societies of Ger- ' many have from 140 to 400; and yet the general activity of ideas and· business seems no less great there than elsewhere. 6 Now, it happens at the same time that the Anglican church is far more powerfully in- tegrated than other Protestant churches, To be sure, England has been customarily regarded as the classic land of individual freedom;

8 To be sure, the statistics of English suiddes are not very exact. Because of the penalties attached to suicide, many cases are reported as accidental death. However, this inexactitude is not enough to explain the extent of the difference between this country and Germany.

EGOISTIC SUICIDE

b · r6r ut actu~lly many facts indicate that the number of common bl.

~ory beliefs and practices, which are thus withd f ' o tga- mq · b · d' 'd · . rawn rom free stillu~:n ~ m tvt uals, _is. greater than in Germany. First, the law b ctwns many relig10us requirements: such as the law of the

o servance of Sunday, that forbidding stage representations of an character from Holy Scripture; the one until l . . y profession of faith from eve rece?~ Y requmng some b d. ry member of political representative o ies, et~. Next, respect for tradition is known to be eneral an

powerful m En.gland: it must extend to matters of reli io! as well / others. But a highly developed trad'f 1- 1 g . s t . . . . . . , I wna ism a ways more or less re- s rtcts activity of the md1vidual. Finally the A 1· I . onl p t t 1 ' ng 1can c ergy 1s the

/ r~ es tnt c ergy or?anized in a hierarchy. This external or~ani-

::1;;:;s e::ciiv~~~:i~s:~ mner unity incompatible with a pronou~ced

p Besides, England has the largest number of clergymen f , rotesta~t. country. In r876 there averaged 908 church-go:s ~ny

every ~mister, compared with 932 in Hungary, I roo in Hollan~r 1,300 m Denmark, 1,440 in Switzerland and I 6~o in Ger . ; The number of priests is not an insignificant det~·1 man!' characteristi: b~t one related to the intrinsic natur~ :rr:i _s~per~:l proof of this is that the Catholic clergy is ever h tg1oln. e

l yw ere muc 1 more numer~us ~ 1an t~e Protestant. In Italy there is a priest for ever 26 Catholtcs, m Spam for 4 19 in Portugal for 6 · S . y 7 540, in France for 823, in' Belgium for I o55~ ·;hn' :"1tzberland for Priest · th I ' · · is 1s ecause the is e natura organ of faith and tradition and b h elsew.here the organ inevitably develops in exact ro e;r~::n :re .as fun~tlon .. The more intense religious life, the mor/ m!n are ne~d

1 :

to dm~ct it. The greater the number of dogmas and rece ts th . e pret~t_10n of which is not left to individual conscie!ces ihe e mter- thortt1es are required to tell their meaning· moreover 'th more au- merous th th . . h ' ' e more nu-

. ese au. onties, t e more closely they surround and th better they restram the individual. Thus far fr k . e th h . ' om wea enmg our

eory, t e case of England verifies it. If Protestantism there does not produce th. e same results as on the continent i't i's bee 1· .

· ty h · · , ause re 1g1ous soc1e t ere is much more strongly constituted and to th. t sembles the Catholic church. is ex ent re-

1 Oettingen, Moralstatistik, p. 62 6.

SUICIDE

Here, however, is a more general proof in confirmation of our

thesis. · d The taste for free inquiry can be aroused only if accompame

by that for learning. Knowledge is free thought's o°:ly means of achieving its purposes. When irrational beliefs or pract1Ces have lost their hold, appeal must be made, in the search for others, to t~e en- lightened consciousness of which knowledge is only the. highest form. Fundamentally, these two tendencies are one and s~rmg fr?m the same source. Men generally have the desire for sel~-.mstruction only in so far as they are freed from the yoke of ~radition;. for as long as the latter governs intelligence it is all-sufficient and Jealous of any rival. On the other harid, light is sought as soon as customs whose origins are lost in obscurity no longer corr~spond to new ne- cessities. This is why philosophy, the first, synthetic form of knowl- edge, appears as soon as religion has lost its s,~ay, and.only the.n; and is then followed progressively by the many smgle soences :v1th the further development of the very need which prod~ced philosop~y. Unless we are mistaken, if the progressive weakenmg of collective and customary prejudices produces a tr~nd t?. suicid~ and if Protes- tantism derives thence its special pre-disposition to 1t, the two fol- lowing facts should be noted: 1, the desire ~or lea.ming must b.e stronger among Protestants than amo?g ~athohcs; 2, m so. far a~ ~his denotes a weakening of common beliefs it should vary ':1;h SU1C1de, fairly generally. Do facts confirm thi~ twofold hypothesis.

If Catholic France is compared with Protestant Germany merely at their highest levels, that is, if only the upper classes. of both are compared, it seems that France may b~ar the comparison. In _the great centers of our country, knowledge is no less _honGred or. wide- spread than ·among our neighbors; we even _decidedly. outdistance several Protestant countries in this respect. But if the desire for learn- ing is equally felt in the upper reaches of the ~o so:ieties~ it ~s not so on their lower levels; and whereas the maximal mtensity 1s ap- proximately the same in both, the average intensi~ is less among ~s. The same is true of the aggregate of Catholic nations compared with Protestant nations. Even assuming that the highest culture of the for- mer is about the same as the latter's, the situation is quite otherwise as regards popular education. Whereas among the Protestant peoples of Saxony, Norway, Sweden, Baden, Denmark and Prussia, from

EGOISTIC SUICIDE

1877-1878 among 1,000 children of school age, that is, from 6 to 12 years, an average of 957 attended school, the Catholic peoples, France, Austria-Hungary, Spain and Italy, had only 667, or 31 per cent less. Proportions are the same for the periods of 1874-75 and 1860-61. 8 Prussia, the Protestant country having the lowest figure here, is yet far above France at the head of the Catholic countries; the former has 897 pupils per 1,000 children, the latter only 766.9 In all of Germany, Bavaria has most Catholics and also most illit- erates. Of all Bavarian provinces, the Upper Palatinate is one of the most profoundly Catholic and has also the most conscripted men who do hot know how to read or write ( 15 per cent in 187I). In Prussia the same is true for the duchy of Posen and the province of Prussia. 10 Finally, in the whole kingdom there numbered in 1871, 66 illiterates to every 1 ,ooo Protestants and 152 to 1 ,ooo Catholics. The relation is the same for the women of both faiths. 11

Perhaps it will be objected that primary instruction can be no measure of general education. The degree of a people's edU<;:ation, it is of ten said, does not depend on the greater or smaller number of illiterates. Let us agree to this qualification, though the various de- grees of education are perhaps more closely interrelated than seems to be the case and the development of one is difficult without the si- multaneous growth of the others. 12 ·1n any case, although the level of primary instruction may only imperfectly reflect that of scientific cul- ture, it has a certain reference to the extent of the desire for knowl- edge of a people as a whole. A people must feel this need very keenly to try to spread its elements even among the lowest classes. Thus to place the means of learning within everyone's reach, and even legally to forbid ignorance, shows a national awareness of the indispensability of broadened and enlightened intelligence of the in- dividual for the nation's own existence. Actually, Protestant nations have so stressed primary instruction because they held that each indi- vidual must be able to understand the Bible. Our present sear~ is

8 Oettingen, Mor,dstatistik, p. 586. 9 Bavaria slightly exceeds Prussia in one of these periods ( 1877-78) ; but only

this once. 10 Oettingen, ibid., p. 582. 11 Morselli, op. cit., p. 223. 12 Moreover it will appear below that both secondary and higher education arc

more developed among Protestants than among Catholics.

SUICIDE

for the average intensity of this need, the value attached by ~a~ peo· ple to knowledge, not the standing of its scholars and their disc?v· eries. From this special point of view, the state o~ a~vanced ~earning and truly scientific production would be a poor cnte~10n; for it would show only what goes on in a limited sector of society. Popular and general education is a more accurate index.

Having thus proved our first proposition, let us a~tack the second. Does the craving for knowledge to the degree that it corr~sponds to a weakening of common faith really develop as does suic!de? .1:he very facts that Protestants are better educated and commit suicide more than Catholics is a first presumption for this. But the law can not only be verified by comparison of one faith with the other but also be observed within each religious confession.

Italy is wholly Catholic. Public instruction and suicide are identi- cally distr~buted (See Table XIX).

TABLE XIX •-Comparison of Italian Provinces with Refer- ence to Suicide and Education

First Group of · Provinces

Piedmont Lombordy Liguria Rome Tuscany

Averages

Second Group of Provinces

Venice Emilia Umbria Marches Campanq Sardinia

Averages

Third Group of Provinces

Per Cent of Morrloges with Both Husband and Wife

Literate

53.09 44.29 41.15 32.61 24.33 39.09

19.56 19.31 15.46 14.46 12.45 10.14 15.23

Suicides per Million Inhabitants

35.6 40.4 47.3 41.7 40.6 m

32.0 62.9 30.7 34.6 21.6 13.3 32.5

~~ ~ lU Abruni 6.35 15,7 Apulia 6.81 16.3 Calabria 4.67 R.1 Basilicata ~- ~

Averages 6.23 14.7 • The figures for literate couples are from Oettingen, Mora/stafisfik, supplement, Table 85;

they refer to the years 1872-78, suicides ta the period 1864-76.

Not only do the averages correspond exactly, but the agreement extends to details. There is a single exception; Emilia, where under

EGOISTIC SUICIDE

the influence of local causes suicides have no relation to the extent of literacy. Similar observations may be made in France. The depart· ments containing most illiterate couples ( above 20 per cent) are Cor- reze, Corsica, Cotes-du-Nord, Dordogne, Finisterre, Landes, Morbi- han, Haute-Vienne; all relatively free from suicides. More generally, among departments with more than Io per cent of couples unable either to read or write, not one belongs to the northeastern region which is classical territory for French suicides.1 3

If Protestant countries are compared with one another, the same paral~elism will be found. More suicides occur in Saxony than in Prussia; Prussia has more illiterates than Saxony (5.52 per cent-com- pared with I. 3 in 1865). Saxony is even peculiar in that the school population is above the legal requirement. For 1,000 children of school age in 1877-78, 1,031 attended school: that is, many children continued their studies after the required time. The fact is not met with in any other country. 14 Finally England, as we know, is the one Protestant country with the fewest suicides; it also most resembles Catholic countries with respect to education. In 1865 there were still 23 per cent of naval seamen who could not read and 27 per cent unable to write.

Still other facts may be compared with the foregoing and ~onfirm them.

The liberal professions ;tnd in a wider sense the well-to-do classes are certainly those with the liveliest taste for knowledge and the most active intellectual life. Now, although the statistics of suicide by oc- cupations and classes cannot always be obtained with sufficient ac- curacy; it is undeniably exceptionally frequent in the highest classes of society. In France from 1826 to 1880 the liberal professions lead, with 550 suicides per million of the _professional group, while serv- ants, immediately following, have only 290.15 In Italy, Morselli suc- ceeded in computing the groups exclusively devoted to letters and found that they far surpass all others in their relative contribution. Indeed, for 1868-76, he estimates it as 482.6 per million members of this profession; the army follows with only 404.1 and the general average of the country is only 32. In Prussia ( 1883-90) the corps of

13 See Annuai,e Jtatistique de la France, 1892-94, p. 50 and 51. 14 Oettingen, Mo,a/1tati1tik, p. 586. 15 General report of criminal justice for 1882, p. CXV.

166 SUICIDE

public officials, which is most carefully recruited and forms an intel- lectual elite, surpasses all other professions with 832 suicides; the health services and public instruction, though much lower,. still have very high figures (439 and 301). Bavaria shows the same picture. Omitting the army, the position of which is exceptional from the point of view of suicide for reasons to be given below, public offi- cials hold second place with 454 suicides and almost achieve first place, for they are barely exceeded by business, with the rate of 465; the arts, literature and the press follow closely with 416. 16 To be sure, the educated classes in Belgium and Wurttemberg seem less gravely afflicted; but professional nomenclature in these countries is. too imprecise to permit much importance being attributed to the two irregularities. ·

Further, we have seen that in all the countries of the world women commit suicide much lesss than men. They are also much less edu- cated. Fundamentally traditionalist by nature, they govern their con- duct by fixed beliefs and have no great intellectual needs. In Italy, between 1878-79, there were 4,808 married men out of 10,000 who could not sign their marriage contract; of 10,000 married women, 7,029 could not. 17 In France, the proportion in 1879 was 199 .hus- bands and 310 wives per 1,000 couples. In Prussia the same differ- ence is found between the sexes, among Protestants as well as among Catholics. 18 In England it is much less than in other. European coun- tries. In 1879, 138 illiterate husbands were found per thousand to 185 wives, and since 1851 the proportion has been practically the same.19 But England is also the country-where women come closer to men with respect to suicide. To 1;000 suicides of women there were 2,546 of men in 1858-60, 2,745 in 1863-67, 2,861 in 1872-76, while everywhere else 20 suicides of women are four, five or six times less frequent than those of men. Finally, circumstances are almost reversed in the United States, which makes them particularly instruc•

18 See Prinzing, op. cit., pp. 28-31. It is noteworthy that in Prussia journalism and the arts show a rather ordinary figure (279 suicides).

17 Oettingen, MoralstaliJtik, supplement, Table 83. 18 Morselli, p. 223. 19 Oettingen, ibid., p. 577. . . . 20 Except Spain. But not only is the accuracy of Spanish statistics open to doubt,

but Spain cannot compare with the great nations of Central and Northern Europe.

EGOISTIC SUICIDE

tive. Negro women, it seems, are equally or more highly educated than their husbands. Several observers report 21 that they are also very strongly predisposed to suicide, at times even surpassing white women. ~he proportion in certain places is said to be 350 per cent.

There 1s one case, however, in which our law might seem not to be verified.

Of all religions, Judaism counts the fewest suicides, yet in none other is education so general. Even in elementary education the Jews are at least .on a level with the Protestants. In fact, in Prussia ( 1871), to 1,000 Jews of each sex there were 66 illiterate rrien and 125 women; for the Protestants the numbers were practically the same, 66 an_d 114. But the Je':s participate proportionally more, particu- larly 1~ secondary and higher learning, than the members of other religions, as the following figures taken from Prussian statistics (years 1875-76) 22 show.

Catholics Protestants Jews Shore of each religion in I 00 inhabitants

of all sorts 33.8 64.9 1.3 Shore of each religion in I 00 secondary school pupils 11.3 73.l 9.6

1:aking into account differences of population, Jews attend Gym- ~as1a, Realschulen, etc., about 14 times as often as Catholics and 7 times as often as Protest~ts. It is the same with higher education. Among 1,000 youn..g Catholics attending institutions of learning of every sort, there are only 1.3 at a university; among 1,000 Protes- tants, 2.5; for the Jews the proportion increases to 16.2a

But if the Jew manages to be both well instructed and very dis- inclined to suicide, it is because of the special origin of his desire for knowledge. It is a general law that religious minorities, in order to protect themselves better against the hate to which they are exposed or merely through a sort of emulation, try to surpass in knowledge the populations surrounding them. Thus .Protestants themselves show more desire for knowledge when they are a minority of the general

21 Baly and Boudin. We quote from Morselli, p. 225.

22 According to Alwin Petersilie, Zur Statistik de, hoheren Lehramtalten in

Preuuen. In Zeitschr. d. preus. stat. Bureau, 1887, p. 109 ff. 2

3 Zeitffhr. d. pr. stat. Bureau, 1889, p. XX.

SUICIDE

population.24 The Jew, therefore, seeks to learn, not in order to re- place his collective prejudices by reflective thought, but merely to be better armed for the struggle. For him it is a means of offsetting the

, unfavorable position imposed on him by o.pinion and sometim~s. by law. And since knowledge by itself has no mfluence upon a tradition in full vigor, he superimposes this intellectual life upon _hi~ habitual routine with no effect of the former upon the latter. This is the rea- son for the 'COmplexity he presents. Primitive in certain res~ects, in others he is an intellectual and man of culture. He thus combmes the advantages of the severe discipline c?aracteristic of s1:1all and an- cient groups with the benefits of the mte·nse culture enJoyed ~y our great societies. He has all the intelligence of modern man without sharing his despair.

Accordingly, if in this case intellectual _d~velopment. bear.s _no re- lation to the number of voluntary deaths, 1t 1s because its origm and significanc~ are not the usual ones. So ~he exception ~s only aprar- ent; it even confirms the law. Indeed, 1t proves that 1f the sutc1dal tendency is great in educated circles, this is due, as we have sai?, t? the weakening of traditional beliefs and to the state ,of mor~l md1- vidualism resulting from this; for it disappears when education has another cause and responds to other needs.

IV Two important conclusions derive from this chapter. First we see why as a rule suicide increases with knowledge.

Knowl;dge does not determine this progress. It is innocent; nothing

24 In fact the following shows the variation of Protestant enrollment in secondary , . . schools in thr. different provinces of Prussia:

Average Proportion· of Difference Proportion of Protestant Protestant Pupils ta Between

Population to Total Total No. of Pupils First and Second

1st group 98.7-87.2% Averoge 94.6 90.8 - 3.8 2nd group 80 -50 % Average 70.3 75.3 ++ 1t 4 3rd group 50 -40 % Average 46.4 56.0 4th group Below 40% Average 29.2 61.0 + 31.8

Thus where Protestantism is in a great majority, its scholastic population is not in prop~rtion to its total population. With the in;rease of _the Catholic min~~ity, the difference between the two populations, from bemg negative, becomes pos1t1ve, and this positive difference becomes larger in proportion as _th~ Protestan!s become. few_er. The Catholic faith also shows more intellectual cunos1ty when m the mmonty, ( See Oettingen, Moralstatistik, p. 650).

EGOISTIC SUICIDE

is more unjust than to accuse it, and the example of the Jews proves this conclusively. But these two facts result simultaneously from a single general state which they translate into different forms. Man seeks to learn and man kills himself because of the loss of cohesion in his religious society; he does not kill himself because of his learn- ing. It is certainly not the learning he acquires that disorganizes re- ligion; but the desire for knowledge wakens because religion becomes disorganized. Knowledge is not sought as a means to destroy ac- cepted opinions but because their destruction has commenced. To be sure, <;mce knowledge exists, it may battle in its own name and in its own cause, and set up as an antagonist to traditional sentiments. But its attacks would be ineffective if these sentiments still possessed vi- t:i.lity; or rather, would not even take place. Faith is not uprooted by dialectic proof; it must already be deeply shaken by other causes to be unable to withstand the shock of argument.

Far from knowledge being the source of the evil, it is its remedy, the only remedy we have. Once established beliefs have been carried away by the current of affairs, they cannot be artificially reestablished; only reflection cart guide us in life, after this. Once the social instinct is blunted, intelligence is the only guide left us and we have to re- construct a conscience by its means. Dangerous as is the undertaking _there can be no hesitation, for we have no choice. Let those who view anxiously and sadly the ruins of ancient beliefs, who feel all the difficulties of these critical times, not ascribe to science an evil it has not caused but rather which it tries to cure! Beware of treating

. it. as an enemy! It has not the dissolvent effect ascribed to it, but is the only weapon for our battle against the dissolution which gives birth to science itself. It is no answer to denounce it. The authority of vanished traditions will never be restored by silencing it; we shall be only more powerless to replace them. We must, to be sure, be equally careful to avoid seeing a self-sufficient end in education, whereas it is only a means. If minds cannot be made to lose the de- sire for freedom by artificially enslaving them, neither can they re- cover their equilibrium by mere freedom. They must use this free- dom fittingly.

Secondly, we see why, generally speaking, religion has a prophy- lactic effect upon suicide. It is not, as has sometimes been said, because it condemns -it more unhesitatingly than secular morality,

170 SUJCIDB

nor because the idea of God gives its precepts exceptional authority which subdues the will, nor because the prospect of a future life and the terrible punishments there awaiting the guilty give its proscrip- tions a greater sanction than that of human laws. The Protestant be- lieves in God and the immortality of the soul no less than the Catho- lic. More than this, the religion with least inclination to suicide, Judaism, is the very one not formally proscribing it and also the one in which the idea of immortality plays the least role. · Indeed, the Bible contains no law forbidding man to kill himself 25 and, on the other hand, its beliefs in a future life are most vague. Doubtless, in both matters, rabbinical teaching has graduaHy supplied the omissions of the sacred book; but they have not its authority. The beneficent influence of religion is therefore not due to the special nature of re- ligious conceptions. If religion protects man against the desire for self-destruc;tion, it is not that it preaches the respect for his own per- son to him with arguments sui generis,· but because it is a society. What constitutes this society is the existence of a certain number of beliefs and practices common to all the faithful, traditional and thus obligatory. The more numerous and strong these collective states of mind are, the stronger the integration of the religious community, and also the greater its preservative value. The details of dogmas · and rites are secondary. The essential thing is that they be capable of supporting a sufficiently intense collective life. · And because the Protestant church has less consistency than the others it has less moderating effect upon suicide.

25 The only penal proscription known to us is that mentioned by Flavius Josephus in his Hislory of 1h, War of th, J,ws against th, Romans (III, 2,), which says simply that "the bodies of those who kill themselves· voluritarily remain unburied until after sunset; although those who have been killed in battle may be buried earlier." This is not even definitely a· penal measure.

CHAPTER 3 EGOISTIC SUICIDE (continued)

~T i.f ~eligion. preserves men from suicide only because and in so far as .it is ~ society, other societies probably have the same effect. Fr~m this pomt of view let us consider the family and political society.

I

If one_ con_s~lts only the absolute figures, unmarried persons seem to ~omm1t smc1de less than married ones. Thus in France, during the period ~873-78, there were 16,264 suicides of married persons while unmarried persons had only 11,709. The former number is to the s~cond as ~ 32 to 100. 1 As the same proportion appears at other pe- riods. and m othe~ co~ntries, .certain authors had once taught that ~a.mage and fami~y ltfe multiply ~he chances of suicide. Certainly, if m accordance v:ith current opmion one regards suicide primarily ~s an act of despair caused by the di~~lties of existence, this opin- ~on has all t~e a~pearance of p~obabiltty. An unmarried person has m fact an easier hf e than a marned one. Does not marriage entail all sorts of burd~ns and responsibilities? To assure the present and fu- ture of a family, are not more privations and sufferings required than to meet the needs of a single person? 2 Nevertheless clear as it seems, this a priori reasoning is quite false and the fac~s only seem to support it because of being poorly analyzed. The elder Bertillon

1 Durkheim's figure of 132 appears to be a misprint. The figure works

O t t

139.-Ed. u 0 2 See Wagner. Die Gesetzmauigkeit, etc., p. 177 .

r7r