He thus defines four types of suicide, such as egoistic suicide,
altruistic suicide, anomic suicide and fatalist suicide.
This type of behaviour was subject to terminological clarification in the work of Durkheim (1897), who classified it as
altruistic suicide.
The other extremes of egoistic suicide and anomic suicide (known as
altruistic suicide and fatalistic suicide, respectively) are also related to high suicide rates, but were not generally applicable to modern western societies (18).
Yet it is also clear that in any ultimate analysis, the trans-ethical value of
altruistic suicide, most explicitly endorsed in the sacrificial acts recounted in the 23rd chapter of the Saddharmapundarika Sutra, (4) which is determined not by consensus, but by the deep structure of mental-ethical motivation, is something that for the Mahayana also lies on the border between the conventional and transcendental realms.
The most common cases of
altruistic suicide occurred among members of the military.
The work discusses such topics as traditional psychiatric reasons for suicide in films, pain, illness and disability, economic strain and suicide, death of loved ones,
altruistic suicide, and international contexts for the portrayal of suicide.
On the other hand, suicide attacks qualify as
altruistic suicide, committed by an individual who is too much integrated into his or her society.
Perceived burdensomeness, where a person comes to feel he or she is a burden to others, resembles the effect of excessively high integration Durkheim associated with
altruistic suicide.
Some philosophers have claimed that refusing expensive life-saving treatments and even
altruistic suicide can be justified to avoid being a burden.
The fifth ministerial meeting in Cancun, an event associated in many people's minds with the
altruistic suicide of the Korean farmer Lee Kyung-Hae at the barricades, became Seattle II.
Altruistic suicide is a tendency for an individual to sacrifice self for the group, and anomic suicide is a response to social change whether good or bad.
Durkheim, on the other hand, described the army as a case of chronic
altruistic suicide.