CONSEQUENCES OF ECONOMIC DISASTER 233 



of social integration. The society cannot disintegrate itself, in 

 however small a measure, without the individuals composing 

 it being cut adrift, so to speak, in a corresponding measure from 

 social life. The individual is thrown back on himself ; and the 

 greater the disintegration of society, the more will the indi- 

 vidual be reduced to the pre-social state of individualism. The 

 contradiction which arises is evident from what we have already 

 said. Society is disintegrated, dislocated, disorganised ; but 

 the inmiense host of emotions, sentiments, desires, ideals, which 

 we have characterised as psychosocial, and which are a fruit 

 and a resultant of social life, remain. The consequence is a state 

 of social anarchy, produced by the fact that the individual is 

 assailed by desires and wants over which he has no control, 

 which he is unable to satisfy, and likewise unable to repress. 

 Thus the epochs of economic disaster and political revolution 

 are characterised always by a brusque rise in the rate of suicide 

 of the society affected. 



That such must be a consequence of economic disaster is 

 evident ; and even if statistics did not come to furnish proof 

 a posteriori of this fact, we could, nevertheless, foresee the latter 

 and anticipate a priori what is confirmed a posteriori. For 

 what is suicide if not the supreme affirmation of an emphatic 

 negation — the affirmation of the non-value of life ? But if the 

 individual be led to despise and abhor his own life to the extent 

 of destroying it, that life must necessarily be devoid of any 

 value to him; it must have been a life rendered valueless by 

 circumstances. Economic disaster on a large scale affects a 

 very large number of persons ; and these persons, being suddenly 

 deprived of their fortune, of all that had hitherto made life 

 pleasant and comfortable for them, and reduced to circum- 

 stances to which they are ill adapted, or not adapted at all, will 

 frequently be driven to despair. Having lost, by a sudden and 

 unforeseen stroke of bad fortune, all that they were accustomed 

 to, they will tend to lose all hope and confidence in life. 



