Maniacal suicide. —This is due to hallucinations or delirious conceptions. The patient kills himself to escape from an imaginary danger or disgrace, or to obey a mysterious order from on high, etc.
Emile DurkheimRead
Reality seems valueless by comparison with the dreams of fevered imaginations; reality is therefore abandoned.
Interpretation
What this quote means
People often find reality unsatisfactory when compared to their imaginative dreams, leading them to neglect reality.
In this quote, Emile Durkheim highlights the tendency of individuals to abandon reality in favor of more appealing and idealistic visions created by their imagination. He suggests that when confronted with a reality that seems less exciting or fulfilling than the vivid dreams fueled by our desires and creativity, people may choose to disengage from the practicalities of life, seeking solace in their imaginative constructs instead. This reflects a common human struggle between accepting the limitations of the real world and yearning for the limitless possibilities envisioned in our minds.
Themes
RealityDreamsImaginationAbandonmentHuman Nature
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the importance of facing reality instead of solely dreaming, this quote could be used to illustrate the point.
More from Emile Durkheim
All quotes →Man cannot become attached to higher aims and submit to a rule if he sees nothing above him to which he belongs. To free him from all social pressure is to abandon him to himself and demoralize him.
Emile DurkheimRead
If religion has given birth to all that is essential in society, it is because the idea of society is the soul of religion.
Emile DurkheimRead
A person is not merely a single subject distinguished from all the others. It is especially a being to which is attributed a relative autonomy in relation to the environment with which it is most immediately in contact.
Emile DurkheimRead
The roles of art, morality, religion, political faith, science itself are not to repair organic exhaustion nor to provide sound functioning of the organs. All this supraphysical life is built and expanded not because of the demands of the cosmic environment but because of the demands of the social environment.
Emile DurkheimRead
A society whose members are united by the fact that they think in the same way in regard to the sacred world and its relations with the profane world, and by the fact that they translate these common ideas into common practices, is what is called a Church. In all history, we do not find a single religion without a Church.
Emile DurkheimRead
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