The lockdown has witnessed an increasing rate of suicide in recent days. Suicide is a social phenomenon that needs to be analyzed sociologically. Suicide rates increased due to loneliness, fear of infection, lack of freedom of movement, and alcohol withdrawal, etc. Countries like U.SA and Germany are reported to have an increased rate of crime during the lockdown. Experts of the U.S.A have warned about the mental health problems, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicide due to the lockdown. Suicide can be viewed as deviance in society. Deviances can result from sub-cultural characteristics, faulty socialization, parental deprivation, and differential opportunities. Those deviances can indeed be functional or dysfunctional. Suicide has been viewed as a social fact. Before Emile Durkheim’s theory of suicide, the act of suicide was considered to be an individualistic act. He gave a sociological lens to the phenomena. For him, the suicide act is purely social as social currents are mainly responsible for it. For sociologists, suicide is a social act as the individual is the reflection of the society he lives in. Social media and people talk about mental health and depression issues on various platforms. It is not that suicide rates have increased only due to the lockdown. The issue existed for ages. The lockdown period has only made every phenomenon dynamic and transparent.
I would like to explain the issue in light of the self and identity concept of George Herbert Mead. Body, mind, self, and society all evolve gradually and influence each other to a great deal. We can say that it is the individual who needs to stay strong, understand his /her self worth and restrain from the act, but the impact of the society can never be ignored. There is a linkage among all these parts. They all involve a single evolutionary process. His non- dualistic approach is truly groundbreaking as he has tried to establish the fact that both individuals and society are not apart and distinct from each other. If we begin from the biological capacities, then it impacts the movement, vision of the individuals concerned. Then the interaction between the individual and society initiates through the process of development of self. This process involves the development of mind and increasing social interaction within the social acts. Hence body, mind, and self all evolve at the same time influencing each other. The individual sees himself in society. The society acts as the mirror. Isolation, financial difficulties, stress, depression, anxiety maybe some of the reasons but the social aspect is hidden from all. The concept of mental health itself is very much connected with social and self-image. For such deviance, not only the individual but also society is responsible. Again what is a society? It refers to a group of people with a common territory and culture. It’s the community with which the person lives. It refers to every individual of the community and it consists of us. We just can’t run away from each other. We need to promote cooperation and good relationship with each other to live a happy and healthy life.