Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was a Swiss-born psychiatrist known for her work on death and dying. She authored the groundbreaking book On Death and Dying, which introduced the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Her extensive work with terminally ill patients led her to challenge traditional views on treating the dying. She encouraged more compassionate end-of-life care and founded hospice organizations. Kübler-Ross continued researching and writing about death until her own passing in 2004 at age 78.

1. Stages of DyingThe Five Stages of dying4/24/2010Muhammad Ali Jinnah UniversityPrepared By Muhammad Wajih Rana Afaq<br />Dr Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, The Author of The Five Stages of Grief<br />Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, M.D. (July 8, 1926 – August 24, 2004) was a Swiss-born psychiatrist, a pioneer in Near-death studies and the author of the groundbreaking book On Death and Dying (1969), where she first discussed what is now known as the Kübler-Ross model.<br />She is a 2007 inductee into the National Women's Hall of Fame. She was the recipient of twenty honorary degrees and by July 1982 had taught, in her estimation, 125,000 students in death and dying courses in colleges, seminaries, medical schools, hospitals, and social-work institutions. In 1970, she delivered the The Ingersoll Lectures on Human Immortality at the University of Harvard, on the theme, On Death and Dying.<br />She moved to the United States in 1958 to work and continue her studies in New York.<br />As she began her practice, she was appalled by the hospital treatment of patients who were dying. She began giving a series of lectures featuring terminally ill patients, forcing medical students to confront people who were dying.<br />In 1962 she accepted a position at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Kübler-Ross completed her degree in psychiatry in 1963, and moved to Chicago in 1965. She became an instructor at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine. She developed there a series of seminars using interviews with terminal patients, which drew both praise and criticism. She sometimes questioned the practices of traditional psychiatry that she observed. She also undertook 39 months of classical psychoanalysis training in Chicago.<br />Her extensive work with the dying led to the book On Death and Dying in 1969. In this work she proposed the now famous Five Stages of Grief as a pattern of adjustment. These five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. In general, individuals experience most of these stages, though in no defined sequence, after being faced with the reality of their impending death. The five stages have since been adopted by many as applying to the survivors of a loved one's death, as well.<br />Kübler-Ross encouraged the hospice care movement, believing that euthanasia prevents people from completing their 'unfinished business'.<br />In 1977 she founded \"
Shanti Nilaya\"
(Home of Peace), a healing Center for the dying and their families in Escondido, California. She was also a co-founder of the American Holistic Medical Association.<br />In the late 1970s Kübler-Ross became interested in out-of-body experiences, mediumistic, spiritualism and attempting to contact the dead. This led to a scandal connected to the Shanti Nilaya healing center where she was duped by the medium Jay Barham. He was found to be naked and wearing only a turban when someone unexpectedly pulled the tape off the light.<br />Kubler-Ross may have thought that Christianity taught transmigration of the soul (reincarnation).<br />She conducted many workshops on AIDS in different parts of the world. In 1990 she moved the healing Center to her own farm in Headwater, Virginia to reduce her extensive travelling.<br />Kübler-Ross suffered a series of strokes in 1995 which left her partially paralyzed on her left side, and the healing Center closed around that time. In a 2002 interview with The Arizona Republic, she stated that she was ready for death. She died in 2004 at her home in Scottsdale, Arizona, and later buried at the Paradise Memorial Gardens cemetery.<br />Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, psychiatrist and prolific author of the ground- breaking book, On Death and Dying, died Tuesday evening, August 24, 2004, in Scottsdale, Arizona of natural causes. She was surrounded by her family and close friends. She was 78.<br />“Every moment of her life was devoted to dying patients and what they were going through,” noted long-time friend Mwalimu Imara, who has been close to her since the beginning of her research. “Her prolonged illness following several strokes only made her even more determined to speak up for the rights of the terminally ill.”<br />Tributes began pouring in almost immediately from people around the world who have been stirred by Dr. Kübler-Ross’ teachings. According to her longtime publishing agent Barbara Hogensen, Kübler-Ross authored more than 20 books, many of which have been translated into more than twenty-eight languages. Titles include: To Live Until We Say Good-Bye, On Children and Death, AIDS: The Ultimate Challenge, and her autobiography, The Wheel of Life. Her most recent book, Real Taste of Life, was a photographic journal produced in collaboration with her son, Kenneth, a travel photographer, who helped care for her both personally and professionally since she officially retired to Arizona in 1995. She had recently finished drafting her final book, On Grief and Grieving, with longtime collaborator and friend, David Kessler.<br />Dr. Kübler-Ross was born as one of triplet sisters in Zurich, Switzerland, on July 8, 1926. Always spirited, she decided upon a medical career early in her childhood against the wishes of her father. The focus of her work in death and dying crystallized in 1945. She was a member of the International Voluntary Service for Peace who helped in ravaged communities after World War II. In the concentration camp, Maidanek, carved into the walls where prisoners spent their final hours, she discovered the symbolic butterflies which would become her symbol of the beautiful transformation that she believed occurred at the time of death.<br />After graduating from medical school at the University of Zurich, where she met future husbandand fellow medical student Emanuel “Manny” Robert Ross, she came to the United States in 1958. She worked in major hospitals in New York, Colorado, and Chicago, and she was appalled by the standard treatment of dying patients.” They were shunned and abused; nobody was honest with them,” she said. Unlike her colleagues, she made it a point to sit with terminal patients, listening as they poured out their hearts to her. While simultaneously raising two small children, she began giving lectures featuring dying patients who talked about their most intimate dying experiences. “My goal was to break through the layer of professional denial that prohibited patients from airing their inner-most concerns,” she wrote.<br />Her bestselling first book, On Death and Dying, 1969, made her an internationally-renowned author. Even today, her trail-blazing book is required reading in most major medical, nursing, and psychology programs. A 1969 Life Magazine article outlining her work gave further mainstream credibility and awareness to this new way of dealing with dying patients, although her conclusions were quite revolutionary at the time. “People today find it hard to believe that her now commonly-accepted conclusions were quite revolutionary at the time,” said her sister, Eva Bacher. “She was always very proud that her work helped to bring the hospice movement into the mainstream in the United States.” Throughout the 1970’s, Dr. Kübler-Ross led hundreds of workshops and spoke to standing-room-only crowds throughout the world. The “five psychological stages of dying” (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance) outlined in her book became accepted as common knowledge throughout the world. She continued to both learn and teach in many important medical facilities and hospitals as her influence grew.<br />She assumed the Presidency of the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Center and the Shanti Nilaya Growth and Healing Center in the late 1970’s, a base from which she gave “Life, Death and Transition” workshops worldwide. She also continued her personal interest in mysticism, the afterlife, and other less commonly accepted forms of therapy. In the 1980’s, she purchased a 300-acre farm in Head Waters, Virginia, to serve as a healing and workshop center, and called it Healing Waters. “Always controversial, she turned her focus at the time into helping babies born with AIDS when nobody else wanted anything to do with them,” said Frances Leuthy, who was her assistant and ran the Virginia center. She officially retired to Arizona in 1995, after a series of serious strokes debilitated her body, and a fire, which destroyed her house and all of her belongings. She left her farm behind for a fresh start near to son, Kenneth.<br />Even in retirement, she continued to receive hundreds of visitors from around the world, including celebrities such as Mohammed Ali, Susan Sarandon, and Lady Sarah Ferguson. The March 29, 1999 issue of Time Magazine named her one of “The Century’s Greatest Minds” in a summary of the 100 greatest scientists and thinkers of the century. Throughout the span of her life, she continued to encourage students with similar interests, and regularly contributed forwards, chapters, and sections to numerous other authors’ books regarding death, dying, and grief. She was the recipient of more than 20 honorary degrees from colleges and universities across the country. She participated in a number of advisory boards, committees and societies, and was one of the founders of the American Holistic Medical Association.<br />Always outspoken, her work in challenging the medical profession to change its view of dying patients brought about great change and advanced many important concepts such as living wills, home health care, and helping patients to die with dignity and respect. “She always was, and will continue to be, a strong voice for the rights of terminally ill patients,” noted Dr. Gregg Furth, New York Jungian psychologist, a close family friend and supporter.<br />In the final years of her life, she looked forward to her own quick “transition” and tried to deal with the frustration of helping thousands of people to accept their own death, and yet being unable to direct her own. Never fearing death, she wanted only to follow what she believed, “Life doesn’t end when you die. It starts.” She is survived by son Kenneth Lawrence, a photographer in Scottsdale, Arizona; daughter Barbara Lee Rothweiler, a clinical psychologist in Wausau, Wisconsin, (husband Jeffrey); granddaughters Sylvia and Emma; and sister Eva. She is preceded in death by former husband Manny; brother, Ernst; and sister, Erika.<br />An Interview With Her:<br />DR: Is there any good reason to be afraid of dying?ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS: No, if you have enough people who love you, who will see to it that your needs are met, so that if you request to die at home you will be allowed to die at home. If you don't want to die in a hospital, you should at least be able to go to a hospice.For that, you need a support system around you, people who really know you, because people don't volunteer that. You have to speak up as a patient. If you can't speak anymore, like I couldn't speak after my stroke, you need somebody who speaks up for you. I hope that when I die, if I can't speak anymore, that they at least let me go to my farm and die at home, where I can have a cup of coffee and a cigarette. Which is a bad habit, but I know it's a bad habit.DR: Do you think there's such a thing as a \"
sacred inconsistency,\"
such as your smoking cigarettes, which is justified even though destructive?\"
ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS: If we would only live \"
healthy,\"
we would probably all have to be on a macrobiotic diet, and not enjoy coffee, not enjoy meat, not enjoy Swiss chocolates, not smoke, not even breathe the air we breathe in. I mean, the planet Earth has been so polluted with so many things, there is not a place on planet Earth where you could live a totally healthy life.We should all try to live as healthy as possible. I mean, I grow vegetables for over 100 people, and it's a totally organic garden, and it's healthy. We live off the farm, and it's totally self-sustaining and self-supporting. But I have my weaknesses. I drink caffeine-free coffee, not that it matters terribly, but at least I make an attempt to live healthier. And as I get older, I can't drink alcohol anymore. I used to like a glass of wine, and I can't do it anymore.I think that as you evolve spiritually, automatically your body tells you what is acceptable for your body and what is not. I could not now smoke the way I used to smoke when I went to medical school and worked nights. That's where I started smoking, to keep awake. I can't drink 15 cups of coffee,which I still did 20 years ago. Now I have caffeine-free coffee.I survive. Eventually, when my body tells me it's time to quit smoking, I will quit smoking. But if somebody tells me you can't smoke, you can't do this, you can't do that, the aggravation of this constant nagging is, I think, more damaging to my health than if I listen to my own body and live accordingly. I have beef on my farm. Maybe once a year I have beef. Not that I don't like it anymore, I just don't have the desire for it anymore. I think everybody who is on a path of spiritual evolution, which all human beings are at different levels . . . you will know yourself what you have to give up. It will be one giving up after another. But it is replaced with things that are much more precious and much more valuable than what you give up. But we don't tell that to people, because then they do it for the wrong motivation.DR: Do you find that there are great differences between cultures regarding attitudes toward death? Which ones do you feel have the most healthy approaches?ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS: Yes, like Mexicans. They go and visit the graves. They bring food, they talk to them, they have a feast. There are lots of cultures who have much less of a hangup. The old, old, old cultures are also much more natural. In the more sophisticated, more materialistic Western world, even to die costs a fortune.They put shoes on the dead that are comfortable to wear, and silk pillows, and put rouge on the cheeks, so they look like they're only asleep. It's so phony and so dishonest. But that's more of a modern day deterioration. In the old days, the farmers died here just like in Switzerland. They had what you call a wake. It was in the house, in the best living room. People came. I remember my neighbor. I was able to say goodbye to him, I was allowed to touch him. I touched for the first time in my life a dead body. My father talked to him, like he could hear him, and I was very impressed by that.Nothing was covered up with rouge and lipstick and makeup and all that baloney. Things have really deteriorated in the last hundred years, and more in the big cities than in the country. There are still places in the country here where it's much more natural. But that changes very rapidly now anyway.DR: Does the belief in reincarnation, or the lack of such belief, strongly influence people's feelings about death?ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS: It comes up very, very rarely with my patients. Very rarely. Those that believe in reincarnation, sometimes they're annoyed that they have to come back, you know, that they haven't done what the could have done and should have done. My patients, you understand, are usually more indigent and not terribly educated. Many of my patients don't know anything about reincarnation.It makes not much of a difference. What makes a difference is if your spiritual quadrant is open. If you have a faith, any faith, any, that is solid and internalized, you have much less of a problem than if you are a wishy-washy Protestant or a wishy-washy Catholic or a wishy-washy Jew.Of the religious groups, there are some that have a much harder time than others. The Jewish people have a terrible issue about death. I tried to find out why they have such a problem. I asked lots of rabbis. It's one of the few religions I know of, where if you ask twenty rabbis, you get twenty different answers. One says you continue to live through your son and your son's son. And what happens if you have no son, if you only have daughters? Do you understand?Let me ask another rabbi. \"
You will survive in their memory.\"
Well, after a hundred years, nobody remembers you. If you have not concretized your concept, then you have a heck of a time.DR: How can an atheist or agnostic most constructively deal with the inevitability of death? Is there an existentialist sense of angst that enters , and...ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS: (interrupting) You have no problem!! When I started this work, I wouldn't know what that was. I was raised Protestant. In my heart I was Catholic, and I was made into a Jew. For 22 years I was a little bit of everything. Then I worked with dying patients, and I began to realize that we're all the same. We're all the same human beings. We all are born the same way.We all die the same way, basically. The experience of death and after death is all the same.It only depends how you have lived. If you have lived fully, then you have no regrets, because you have done the best you can do. If you made lots of goofs-- much better to have made lots of goofs than not to have lived at all. The saddest people I see die are people who had parents who said \"
Oh, I would be so proud if I can say 'my son the doctor.'\"
They think they can buy love by doing what mom tells them to do and what dad tells them to do. They never listen to their own dreams. And they look back and say, \"
I made a good living but I never lived.\"
That, to me, is the saddest way to live. That's why I tell people, and I really mean it literally, if you're not doing something that really turns you on, do something that does turn you on, and you will be provided for to survive. Those people die with a sense of achievement, of priding themselves that they had the guts to do it.DR: Is there ever any justification for not being honest with someone who is dying, about the fact that they are dying?ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS: You have to be honest, but you don't have to be totally honest. You have to answer their questions, but don't volunteer information for which they have not asked, because that means they're not ready for it yet. If somebody thinks you're a good guy if you tell them the whole truth, that there's nothing else we can do, this is baloney.Without miracles, there are many, many ways of helping somebody, without a cure. So you have to be very careful how you word it. And you never, ever, ever take hope away from a dying patient. Without hope nobody can live. You are not God. You don't know what else is in store for them, what else can help them, or how meaningful, maybe, the last six months of a person's life are. Totally changed around.So you don't just go and drown them in \"
truth.\"
My golden rule has been to answer all the questions as honestly as I can. If they ask me statistically what are their chances...I had a wonderful teacher, who once said that of his patients 50 percent live one year, another 35 percent live two years, and another so-and-so many per cent live two and a half years, and so on. If you were very smart and added all the percentages up, there was always one per cent left. And the real shrewd ones said, \"
Hey, you forgot, what about that last one per cent?\"
And he always said, \"
the last per cent is for hope.\"
I like that. He never gave it to them with 100%. He was fantastic.DR: Could you tell us about your work with the AIDS babies?ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS: What bothers me most is that we have been able to get only a few out of hospitals. It's horrible to get them out. They do not want to discharge them to private families. We have 154 families who are waiting to adopt an AIDS baby, or to become a foster mom to an AIDS baby.DR: Why?ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS: It's monetary gain. The institutions get $1000 a day per baby. They get research grants, and they do research on them. They are the pin-cushion babies. They do research and nobody stops them. Nobody says, \"
one bone marrow per week is too much.\"
That has to stop. They need to be held and cuddled and loved, and see butterflies and grass, and be able to go outside and live as normal a life as humanly possible in the short time they have.If you do that, they just blossom like a flower.DR: With the children you have seen who have gone from being HIV-positive [carrying the AIDS virus] to being HIV-negative, what particulars were there in those cases that you feel made the difference?ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS: The only brief way I can tell you is that they were totally marinated in love. Totally. You understand that from a scientific point of view, those are children who had the antibodies of their mothers, and if there is bonding, and if there is love and cuddling and all the things children need to survive, then they begin to develop their own antibodies. And about 10% of all our babies will become negative, if they get the bonding, if they get the one-to-one. It's not such a big miracle from a medical point of view.But people have to know that not every HIV-positive child is born with AIDS, and has to die with AIDS. That is not true. They can get well.DR: That message certainly has not gotten across yet.ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS: No, it hasn't.DR: Please tell us about the Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Center in Virginia. What is your main work there?ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS: We are building a place which was supposed to be for giving the workshops, on my own land so I don't have to travel so much anymore. The [surrounding] community is petrified of me. I am called the AIDS Lady, and they say I am of Satan. They are all reborn Christians. They got up [at a community meeting] and said, \"
if you call for an ambulance, we will not respond.\"
They said, \"
I am a reborn Christian, but if you ever send one of these kids to school, the school will be closed.\"
So they give me a very hard time.They arranged to only give us permission to house forty people, which makes it impossible for me to do my workshops as planned on my one million dollar project, on that land. So we thought, if that has to be, that will be. We'll still be able to serve and help people. So what we'll probably do is use it as a training center. We train a lot of people worldwide. And we will give some workshops there too. So it will serve its purpose, but exactly what it is going to be after they have finished the harassment, I don't know.They have shot bullets through my bedroom window, because they are convinced that I am hiding some AIDS babies. But that's, you know, the stuff you have to live with.DR: Is the community there divided about this? Is everyone there feeling so negatively?ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS: I have old neighbors and sick people in the neighborhood that I visit, and they are the best neighbors any human being could have. They're a handful. The others are quiet, because they are all inter-related. If one would dare to say something nice, they would probably be shot during hunting season. So they're very guarded. It's all intermarriage and all fanatic, and they're all hunters. I'm sure it's an aggressive minority, but they'revery aggressive, and the others are so intimidated. But if I see them alone, I know there are lots of good people there. I live in the forest alone. I am not afraid of the bears nor of the hunters. I feel very protected.Eventually, if AIDS eventually goes into the community, maybe there will be a change. But anybody who has AIDS in my community, they would be lynched if it were known. So they probably will disappear, for years to come, until there is somebody who can't get away, and that may be a child. And then maybe things will change. It will change in time, if I live long enough. And if I don't, at least I planted some seeds.DR: What goals do you have for the remainder of your life?ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS: To continue as long as I can.<br />The Five Stages Of Dying:<br />There is in all of us a curiosity about dying. Regardless of your religious beliefs there have to be some doubts or shadows of uncertainty. There are five stages involved, some have time to proceed into each stage and come to a peaceful resolve. <br />DENIAL:<br /> I'm too young to die. I'm not ready to die (is anyone ever really ready?). You don't just get up some morning and say, \"
Well, I'm ready to die today\"
. Even when a physician informs one that nothing can be done for them the feeling that some mistake must have been made is in the dying person's mind. The prediction from ones physician of imminent death can do several things. It can give you time to prepare, take care of business, close doors, make amends. The shock begins to ebb as you come to grips with approaching death. <br />ANGER:<br /> Suddenly you are not in control of your life, or death. You have no choice......you are going to die. You have always known this, no one has come out and stated it as a fact before. It makes you angry, you feel so helpless especially at first, then guilt climbs upon your back Anger is directed at everyone and no one in particular. It is a sense of loss of control which is likely not a new feeling if you have endured a long illness. It is normal. Anger is in its own, a sense of strength. It can also be debilitating. <br />BARGAINING: <br />You are willing now to compromise. No use denying it, anger comes and goes so perhaps you can make a deal with God! You are willing to promise to do or not to do specific things if only you can be given more time. It can be based on an upcoming event that is important to you. You can be suffering from insecurities regarding a member of your family or a loved one who you feel is yet dependent on you. There can be a rift that has never been eliminated that needs to be further addressed. You are not free to go until these reasons can be alleviated once and for all. You are hoping yet and eager to deal! <br />DEPRESSION: <br />This is such a normal part of the process of preparing to die. You are already depressed about your incapability's in dealing with responsibility, projects and the situation of every day life. Symptoms of terminal illness are impossible to ignore. You are fully aware that death is inevitable. Aware, angry and filled with sorrow and here again the culprit of guilt sneaks in as you mourn for yourself and the pain that this is causing you family and loved ones. Another totally NORMAL phase. <br />ACCEPTANCE:<br /> This comes after you work though the numerous conflicts and feelings that death brings. You can succumb to the inevitable as you become more tired and weakness hangs on. You become less emotional, calmness arrives and banishes fear along with joy or sadness. You realize the battle is almost over and now it's really alright for you to die. <br />Hospice defines acceptance... <br />Acceptance is NOT doing nothing, defeat, resignation or submission. <br />Acceptance IS coming to terms with reality. It is accepting that the world will still go on without you. Death is after all, just a part of LIFE. <br />The study of death and dying is actually known as thanatology (from the Greek word 'thanatos' meaning death). Elisabeth Kübler-Ross is accordingly sometimes referred to as a thanatologist, and she is considered to have contributed significantly to the creation of the genre of thanatology itself.<br />