DOES DURKHEIM'S THEORY HOLD ANY TRUTHS FOR MODERN DAY SELF-IMMOLATION? A REVIEW ON THE LITERATURE

Durkheim categorized suicide into four types as “egoistic”, “anomic”, “fatalistic”, and “altruistic”. He further hypothesized that the last two types i.e. “fatalistic” and “altruistic” are assigned to the then traditional society. However, in the present article and through literature review I will discuss that in modern society and especially within some low and middle income countries, self-immolation on its first and second most prevalent patterns i.e. to protest at micro and macro levels, respectively could be considered as a social self-sacrifice phenomenon. Therefore, it may well categorize as the altruistic type of suicide based on Durkheim’s theory.