There is a general consensus that suicide is a social problem. But what exactly is the contribution of sociology to research on suicide? This paper proposes a brief overview of the historical bases of the sociology of suicide and its evolution through the study of deviance and exclusion. On the level of application, the sociology of gender contributed to better understand how some aspects of male socialisation, such as the rigid relations with norms of the male role, may act as suicide risk factors or as a path to recovery.