Suicide has become a prominent phenomenon in Korea. The suicide rate of Korea still keeps the top rank among OECD nations, and its powerful tendency has been sustained so far. Under these circumstances, the necessity of the new proper view, which has not been introduced, to diagnose the suicide problem in Korea is arising. This paper aims to provide that view.
Taking the viewpoint of Emile Durkheim's analysis from his book of 『Suicide: A Study in Sociology』, the internal culture, or general psychological status of Korean society may underlie the reason of high suicide rate. As well known, Internal culture is the fundamental drive for human being to create every way of life.
By the research, it has been revealed that the prevalence of materialism in Korea is the key reason for high suicide rate. The strong pursuit of materialism in Korea arises from the internal culture, a combination of the concept of 'interdependent self' and the feeling of anxiety. Under the socioeconomical inequality, Korean people are exposed to life threat along the socioeconomical status, i.e. the poorer one becomes, the easier one encounters life threatening events. In the meantime, as Koreans tends to define oneself by external value, poverty and life threatening events causes Korean people to think negatively that their lives would become miserable. However, not only low social rank people feel anxious about the chance to face risks of life, but also high social rank people do. High social rank people are eager to remain in their current status and turn theirs over to their children so that they may live safely through it. Therefore, no matter what social rank it is, Koreans pursue materialism, the only value they strongly trust that it would protect them from being in danger during their lives.
This paper suggests two viewpoints; First, reducing anxiety by national policy is necessary, as the anxiety is the fundamental motivation of giving important meaning on material. Furthermore, to fulfill the policy effectively, it is recommended, according to the viewpoint of this paper, to consider the current traits of people. Second, escaping from materialism and seeking for new life value is needed to Koreans, who have not been able to ponder the reason of their existence, but been tried to accomplish the socially requested standard which is mostly consisted of socioeconomical factors and hardly to achieve perfectly. Leaving from the desire of materials and taking other values may reduce mental pain, especially under the socio-economical inequality, and offer different level of life psychologically and even physically.