With the rise of science, social media and other technological advancements, it seems to me that mental health issues are on the rise. Physical capacities will not suffice because as they push the individual pass the conditions of mental life, furthering creating equilibrium inequality. So to reacquire a state of equilibrium, one must look at it’s mental capacity to reestablish itself at equilibrium, as physical capacities will not suffice.
By being unhappy, one is not at equilibrium. This is represented in the third quote, where Durkheim is sufficient enough in fully coming to answer to the question noted in the first quote. But equilibrium is defined by conscience, the mental state or capacity of the living thing, and not it’s physical state. Equilibrium is the term used by Durkheim to explain existence where a human or animal can be alive. Unhappiness is caused by not being at equilibrium. Because this is a writing about suicide, Durkheim is writing about unhappiness as it can lead to one’s own death, by it’s own self. Durkheim doesn’t leave it at a ‘state of perpetual unhappiness,’ but rather it is a ‘condemned state.’ A state forced into oneself, by oneself. The repercussions of pushing oneself through the limits of unattainable goals, for Durkheim is unhappiness. Though the physical activity demanded is far too strenuous in comparison. These “unattainable goals” are the cause of one’s mental capacity to believe in itself. Though Durkheim goes on to answer the question, as established in the next two quotes, he gives an answer within the question explaining that mental life has only the same capacity on a human as it’s physical counterpart. The first quotes includes a rhetorical question posed by Durkheim, which seeks to find the connection between mental capacity and physical capacity. I start out this post with these three Durkheim quotes because it lays down the foundation for the concept of happiness and unhappiness. Physical restraint would be ineffective hearts cannot be touched by physio-chemical forces” (Durkheim 1897: 66).
“The awakening of conscience interrupted the state of equilibrium of the animal’s dormant existence only conscience, therefore, can furnish the means to re-establish it. “To pursue a goal which is by definition unattainable is to condemn oneself to a state of perpetual unhappiness” (Durkheim 1897: 66). But how can such an undetermined state be any more reconciled with the conditions of mental life than the demands of physical activity?” (Durkheim 1897: 66).