Elizabeth Kubler-Ross (1926-2004)

Professional Life
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross was born on July 8, 1926 in Switzerland. Kubler-Ross was the oldest of three triplets born to a family that prided work over education. Against the wishes of her father, Kubler-Ross attended the University of Zurich Medical School after she spent time participating in refugee relief work during World War II. Upon graduating from medical school in 1957, Kubler-Ross went to New York to continue her education. It was during her residency in the United States that Kubler-Ross first experienced dying patients. The lack of humane treatment, concern and compassion that was delivered to these critically ill patients appalled Kubler-Ross and led her to develop a workshop that focused on addressing the needs of these individuals. She taught medical students how to work with terminally ill individuals in a respectful way while identifying and acknowledging the issues they were facing as they approached the end of life.

Kubler-Ross left New York to continue her psychiatric training at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in 1962. Soon after, she accepted a teaching position at the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago. During her tenure there, Kubler-Ross continued her work with terminally ill patients. She was criticized for her opinions on how the psychiatric field lacked with respect to addressing the needs of the grieving. She published her groundbreaking book On Death and Dying, based on her years of research and work, in 1969. The book introduced the well-known Five Stages of Grief that are widely used today to help people cope with death.

Her support of the dying led her to rally behind the national hospice care organization. Kubler-Ross believed that individuals needed to experience every stage of their final days to resolve any issues before they died. She was firmly against euthanasia and eventually founded a center to help the dying accept their last moments in a peaceful and healing way. Kubler-Ross spent the latter part of her academic career exploring other aspects of death and dying, including out-of-body experiences and methods of communicating with the deceased.

Contribution to Psychology
Kubler-Ross published On Death and Dying, in which she identified five specific stages of grief that individuals experience as they go through loss. The five stages are:

1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance
   

Although her original intent was to offer these strategies as a coping map for those dealing with death, Kubler-Ross later extended these stages to individuals suffering any major loss, including loss of health, freedom, job, marriage, or youth, just to name a few.

In her book, Kubler-Ross stated that although most people go through at least two of the five stages of grief, not all people experience them in the same order. She noted that many people will continue to struggle with one or more of the stages for many years; some may even wander in and out of stages throughout the remainder of their lives, depending on the severity of their loss. Kubler-Ross’s book has become one of the most widely accepted tools for helping individuals regain their lives in the aftermath of a traumatic loss.

Quote by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross