A Socio-Structural Analysis of Murder, Suicide, and Economic Crime in Ceylon

Wood, Arthur Lewis

doi:10.2307/2090203

Cited by 23 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Porterfield (1952) distinguished between folk and secular societies. The concept of a folk society is very similar to the concept of the society with a closed structure of Palmer (1965), the closed society of Lalli and Turner (1968), the society with external restraints of Henry and Short (1954), and societal types categorized by many other sociologists such as Strauss & Strauss (1953) and Wood (1961). Porterfield defined a secular society as one in which neighborhood, friendship, and kinship ties were loosened, there was a breakdown in the prevailing mores, and there was a reduction in the indigenous origins of the inhabitants.…”

Section: Sociological Theoriesmentioning

confidence: 97%

Murders and suicide: Are they polar opposites

Lester

1987

Behavioral Sci & The Law

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This a&le explores the relationship between suicidal curd mwderous desires. Freud's psychohgicd theory and Henry and Short's socwhgical theory are reviewed, and empirical studies that bear on the issue cve examined. There i s not suficient information as yet to confirm or disconfm thut murder and suicide are polar opposites, but suggestions are made for fixture research needed to answer this question.Murder is easily seen to be an act of aggression, but suicide also can similarly be seen as an act of aggression. This idea was developed by Freud although it was recognized thousands of years ago, as can be seen in the motives of Haemon and Oedipus in the Theban plays of Sophocles. Freud never considered the psychodynamics underlying suicidal behavior to any great extent. Brief mentions of suicidal behavior can be found throughout his writings, however, and Litman (1967) has attempted to document and synthesize this scattered material..By 1910, Freud had recognized many clinical features of suicidal behavior: guilt over death wishes toward others, identification with a suicidal parent, refusal to accept loss of libidinal gratification, suicide as an act of revenge, escape from humiliation or as a communication, and the connection between death and sexuality.More systematic views began with Freud's discussion of melancholia. From this perspective, the essential feature of suicidal behavior is that the person loses a loved object. The energy which is withdrawn from this lost love object is relocated in the ego and used to recreate the loved one as a permanent feature of the self; an identification of the ego with the abandoned object. Litman called this process ego splitting. This can lead to suicide when the ego also harbors hostile wishes toward the lost object, for now the ego can treat itself as the object and can turn the hostility which it formerly felt toward the object onto itself.The expression of anger can be seen clearly in suicide notes where the suicider expresses his or her anger at significant others, hoping that they will suffer shame David Lester, Ph.D., is professor of psychology at Richard StocMon State C o w . Correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed to Dr. Lester at Stockton Stare College, POIVWM, NJ 08240.

show abstract

Section: Sociological Theoriesmentioning

confidence: 97%

Murders and suicide: Are they polar opposites

Lester

1987

Behavioral Sci & The Law

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Adult criminals also have been found to rate higher than non-criminals on alienation scores, particularly on the variable of powerlessness ( Nettler, 1959;Wood, 1961;Clark, 1963;Lefcourt, 1966;Esselstyn, 1967;Galliher, 1967). Crime rates are reported higher in groups where social interaction is characterized by isolation, anonymity, impersonalization, and anomie ( Jeffery, 1959).…”

Section: Alienation and Social Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

Social Alienation: A Review of Current Literature

Lystad¹

1972

The Sociological Quarterly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In recent years considerable attention has been focused on delineation of the concept of alienation and on measurement of its relationship to modern social structure and function. This paper reviews the alienation literature, largely empirically oriented, for the last decade. Included with works of primarily theoretical and methodological importance are substantive studies of the relationships between the alienated individual and his social order. Suggestions for further research are given.* This article was prepared with the assistance of State of the Field Editor, Irwin Rinder.Social Alienation g i of a new world, including the creation of man himself. As private property and the division of labor develop, however, man's labor loses its character as an expression of his powers and assumes an existence separate from him. The products of his labor also stand opposed to him as a power independent of the producer. Man is thus alienated from his labor, from the product of his labor, and, in a sense, from himself. Because capitalism is the instrument that severs these relations, Marx attacks it and its institutions. The positive abolition of private property is thus for Marx the positive abolition of alienation and the return of man to his human, that is social, life (Marx, 1956).Other nineteenth-and early-twentieth-century sociologists concerned with

show abstract

“…Within this broad Durkheimian framework, early scholars on suicide in Sri Lanka sought to discuss it in conjunction with homicide and other crimes; as a form of deviant behaviour, based on the understanding that harming oneself was merely the flip side of harming others (Straus and Straus 1953;Wood 1961). This is also reflected in the writings of the 19th century colonial administrators they cite who noted that the Kandyan Sinhalese frequently committed suicide under circumstances which displayed 'an extraordinary Contempt of Life, and the same time a Desire for Revenge' (John D'Oyly quoted in Straus and Straus 1953: 463).…”

Section: Suicide and Homicidementioning

confidence: 99%

‘Girl still burning inside my head’: Reflections on suicide in Sri Lanka

Alwis

2012

Contributions to Indian Sociology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This chapter reflects on why suicide has become such a pervasive phenomenon in Sri Lankan society by engaging with the extensive scholarly literature that exists on this subject. Rather than trying to provide some overarching, mono-causal explanation, it seeks to illuminate the complexity of the issue and the varied and nuanced ways in which we might try to apprehend it, be it in conjunction with homicide or political conflict, social change or sexual anomie, restraint or collectivism. While problematising our recourse to the 'work of culture' and reading statistics against the grain, this chapter also highlights gendered dimensions and broader conceptual strands where we may not have thought to seek them.

show abstract

A Socio-Structural Analysis of Murder, Suicide, and Economic Crime in Ceylon

Cited by 23 publications

References 2 publications

Murders and suicide: Are they polar opposites

Murders and suicide: Are they polar opposites

Social Alienation: A Review of Current Literature

‘Girl still burning inside my head’: Reflections on suicide in Sri Lanka

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About