SUMMARY OF CHAPTERS xiii 



^ _ PAGES 



determinmg factor of suicide — Suicide among the religious de- 

 nominations — The increase in the suicide-rate is due to a lack of "^ 

 social integration and cohesion — Influence of family life on 

 suicide — Influence of political crises on suicide. 



2. The majority of the wants of civilised man are not of a 



physiological but of a psychological nature — Essential homo- 

 geneity of the physiological characters of mankind — Hetero- 

 geneity of the psychological characters — The correlation of physi- 

 ological and psychological phenomena — The psychological wants 

 of civilised man are unlimited, therefore insatiable — ^The neces- 

 sity of a regulating factor in our psychological life — Society 

 itself can alone undertake the regulation of our psychological life. 



3. The necessity of belief for the integration of society — ^The 



share of the Church in the evolution of Western civilisation — 

 Decline of the ecclesiastical power and growth of the economic 

 power — Detrimental influence on social integration of the 

 increase of social wealth. 



4. Conflict is not a determining cause of social disintegration — ■ 



This disintegration is due to excessive individuaUsm — Destruc- 

 tion of the successive principles which have ensured the integra- 

 tion of the various social tjrpes — Growth and extension of the 

 State — ^Necessity for the re-establishment of a principle ensuring 

 social integration - - - 177-2.52 



Appendices ... . 253-256 



CHAPTER II 

 Insanity as a Social Factor 



1. Increase in the rate of insanity an alarming symptom of our social 



life — ^Although it be true that all movement, whether physio- 

 logical or social, imphes loss ; nevertheless excessive loss occa- 

 sions a serious weakening of vital force — Selection eUminates 

 the weak and the degenerate ; insufficiency of the action of 

 selection in our social life to-day — ^The fact that the increase in 

 the rate of suicide does not in itself imply an increase in the 

 rate of insanity must not be taken as denying the reality of such 

 an increase of insanity — The individual element appears more 

 clearly in considering insanity than it does in considering suicide, 

 for suicide is not bound up with any clinical form of mental 

 aberration — Social causes are, however, in a large measure 

 responsible for the increase in the insanity-rate. 



2. Statistics relating to the increase of insanity in general, of 



alcoholic insanity, and of general paralysis — Statistics relating 



