Pathology, Social

Category: Fields of research

Social pathology refers both to the field of research and to a scientific approach to social processes and individual behaviors. In an analogy to medicine, where pathology refers to the study of diseases, social pathology views society as an organism and social problems (crime, alcoholism, substance abuse, “moral decline”, “deviant behavior”, suicide, etc.) as social diseases. This organic metaphor was first developed by Claude Henri de Saint-Simon and Auguste Comte. Comte viewed society as a collective organism possessing a collective consciousness (consensus universel). Both the organism and society have a harmony of structure and function, and act in relation to their environment in order to achieve goals. Comte argued that problems that exist in society are diseases of the social organism and should be studied by social pathology.

After Comte, two distinct approaches to social pathology developed. Social-Darwinists used biological differences, both on a level of races and classes, and on the level of individuals, as an explanation for crimes and other types of “deviant behavior.” One of the best examples of this approach to social pathology is Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso, who, in the book Criminal Man (1876), posits that criminal behavior is a product of evolutionary atavism that creates primitive or sub-human nature in individuals. These individuals are characterized by a specific shape of the head and bone structure, a tendency towards slang, tattoos, and vices, and all these features form the basis of a criminal personality.

Émile Durkheim, on the other hand, argues that social structure has much more influence on social pathology than individual differences. In Division of Labor in Society (1893), Durkheim states that the division of labor is a consequence of changes in socio-morphological structure. Due to the large natural increase in people, there comes an increase in population and an increase in population density, and this represents an increase in the physical density of society. Increasing the physical density of society leads to increased competition in society; hence, individuals are forced to specialize economically in order to survive. The increasing physical density of people further leads to an increase in moral density, because greater specialization in the division of labor requires higher levels of communication and interaction. If the division of labor does not lead to an increase in cooperation and communication in society, a pathological form of "anomic division of labor" occurs. In modern society, society's control over the individual is decreasing because the influence of religion, kinship groups, and the neighborhood is declining. Individuals are becoming too individualized and detached from any moral control of the wider society. Moral breakdown of a society is what Durkheim calls "anomie".

The approach of Human ecology, developed by Robert Park and Ernest Burgess, similarly to Durkheim’s theory, views urban centers as loci of social pathology. In their book City (1925), Park and Burgess argue that the city leads to the breakdown of the traditional way of life, close neighborly relations are lost, and people live in anonymity. The anonymity and intensity of city life, and especially the focus on work, earning money, and economic relations, have a devastating effect on the form and function of the church, school, and family institutions. Traditional forms of social control are losing their significance, especially in the communities of newly arrived immigrants. Changes in the economic, moral, and interpersonal relations in the city have led to the emergence of many social, moral, and mental disorders. The most significant negative consequences of the urban environment are: crime, alcoholism, homelessness, juvenile delinquency, etc.

Today, social pathology is seen as an outdated and negative term, while various aspects that were earlier under the umbrella of this field are mostly studied separately.

References:

Douglas. Sociology of Deviance (1984);

Durkheim. Suicide, a Study in Sociology (2007, in French 1897);

- Division Of Labor In Society (2014, in French 1893);

Fromm. Escape from Freedom (1941);

- Man for Himself (1947);

Lemert. Social Pathology: A Systematic Approach to the Theory of Sociopathic Behavior (1951);

Lewis, Oscar. Five Families; Mexican Case Studies in the Culture of Poverty (1959);

Lilienfeld. La Pathologie Sociale (2019);

Lombroso, C. Criminal Man (1876);

Mills, C. W. “The Professional Ideology of Social Pathologists”, in American Journal of Sociology (1943);

Plummer. Criminology: A Sociological Introduction (2004);