Concept
anomie
In Durkheim, a state of disorder in which traditional rules have lost their authority and desires become unlimited; the cause of one type of suicide in his study.
Anomie (Durkheim’s anomie) is the condition in which social rules have lost their former authority and desires are not regulated by a shared limit. In the IEP’s summary it is a state of “deregulation” in which traditional rules have lost their authority.
In Suicide (1897) anomie explains one type of suicide: where rules dissolve, desires become unlimited and the individual remains perpetually unhappy; Durkheim calls this the “malady of infinity” (mal d’infini) and argues that anomie has become chronic in the modern economic world. In egoistic suicide it is integration that is weak; in anomic suicide it is regulation. The fourth type, fatalistic suicide, arises from excessive regulation and is mentioned only in a footnote.
Anomie does not simply mean anonymity or crowds; it is the weakening of the regulating force of rules.
Example
In a community whose bonds are intact but whose shared limits have dissolved, desires become unlimited; Durkheim would describe this as an anomic state (an imagined example that fits his definition).