Durkheim's 1897 work is a powerful evidence-based study of why people take their own lives. In the late nineteenth century, it was generally accepted that each suicide was an individual phenomenon, caused by such personal factors as grief, loss, and financial problems. But Durkheim felt there were patterns in suicide rates, and believed that a more likely cause lay in the individual's relationship to society. Rather than look at individual cases, Durkheim analyzed suicide rates to see if there were more general social factors involved. And after gathering data on more than 26,000 suicide events, he identified four social conditions that contribute to higher levels of suicide.
