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Elisabeth Kubler-Ross: Five Stages of Grief

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross was one of the foremost authorities on the subject of dying. She contributed greatly to hospice by developing research and methods to help the dying.

She is perhaps most widely known for her landmark book On Death and Dying, and for having identified the Five Stages of Grief.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross broke down barriers to discussing the subject of death and dying, she helped to revolutionize how dying patients were cared for around the world, and she made tremendous strides in helping people to be better able to cope with the process of dying.

 

The Five Stages of Grief

Sometimes called the "Grief Cycle," the Five Stages of Grief describe the general reactions people have when they learn that they are dying, and the process that they go through in learning to cope.

According to Kubler-Ross, as follows:

• Denial
• Anger
• Bargaining
• Depression
• Acceptance

The classification of the process into stages, is not meant to be a prescription for the process of how someone should die, nor is it meant to imply that there is some kind of linear step-by-step process.  David Kessler, who worked with Kubler-Ross, says this about the five stages of grief on his website:

"The five stages, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance are a part of the framework that makes up our learning to live with the one we lost. They are tools to help us frame and identify what we may be feeling. But they are not stops on some linear timeline in grief. Not everyone goes through all of them or in a prescribed order. Our hope is that with these stages comes the knowledge of grief ’s terrain, making us better equipped to cope with life and loss."

 

More Information About the Five Grief Stages

We are pleased to provide you with the following links to other websites where you can find more information about Elisabeth Kubler Ross and the five stages of grief.

• Interview with Elisabeth Kubler Ross on death and dying.
• Grief.com:  The Elisabeth Kubler-Ross & David Kessler website
• Facing Death - a film about Elisabeth Kubler Ross, available from Amazon.com
• An abstract about Kubler-Ross' life, from PubMedcentral