Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, M.D. (July 8, 1926 – August 24, 2004) was a Swiss-born psychiatrist and the author of the groundbreaking book On Death and Dying, where she first discussed what is now known as the Kübler-Ross model. 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.^[1]

Birth and education

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was born on July 8, 1926 in Zürich, Switzerland, one of triplets. Elisabeth was born fifteen minutes before her identical sister, Erika. Minutes later came her sister, Eva.^[2] Her family were Protestant Christians. Her father did not want her to study medicine, but she persisted. Eventually her father took pride in her career. In an interview she stated: In Switzerland I was educated in line with the basic premise: work work work. You are only a valuable human being if you work. This is utterly wrong. Half working, half dancing - that is the right mixture. I myself have danced and played too little."^[3]

During WWII she became involved in refugee relief work in Zürich and later visited Majdanek concentration camp. She graduated from the University of Zürich medical school in 1957.

Academic career

She moved to the United States in 1958 to work and continue her studies in New York.

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.

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 medical school. 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.

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. People tend to go through most of these, not always in sequence, after being faced with the reality of their own impending death. The five stages have since been adopted by many as applying to the survivors of a loved one's death, as well.

Kübler-Ross encouraged the hospice care movement, believing that euthanasia prevents people from completing their 'unfinished business'.

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.

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. ^[4][5][6]

Kubler-Ross may have thought that Christianity taught transmigration of the soul (reincarnation). ^[4]

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.

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.

Personal life

In 1958 she married a fellow medical student from America, Emanuel ("Manny") Ross and moved to the United States. Becoming pregnant disqualified Kübler-Ross from a residency in pediatrics, so she took one in psychiatry. She had four miscarriages, finally having a son, Kenneth, and a daughter, Barbara, in the early 1960s.^[7] Her husband requested a divorce in 1979.

One of her greatest wishes was her plan to build a hospice for infants and children infected with AIDS to give them a last home where they could live until their passing, inspired by the aid-project of British female doctor Cicely Saunders. In 1985 she attempted to do this in Virginia. But local residents feared the possibility of infection and blocked the necessary re-zoning. In 1994, she lost her house and possessions to an arson fire that is suspected to have been set by opponents of her AIDS work.^[8]

Honorary Degrees

• Doctor of Science, H.C., Albany Medical College, New York 1974
• Doctor of Laws, University of Notre Dame, IN.,1974
• Doctor of Science, Smith College 1975
• Doctor of Science, Molley College, Rockville Center, NY, 1976
• Doctor of Humanities, St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, IN. 1975
• Doctor of Laws, Hamline University, MN. 1975
• Doctor of Humane Letters, Amherst College, MA. 1975
• Doctor of Humane Letters, Loyola University, IL 1975
• Doctor of Humanities, Hood College, MD 1976
• Doctor of Letters, Rosary College, IL. 1976
• Doctor of Pedagogy, Keuka College, NY 1976
• Doctor of Humane Science, University of Miami, FL 1976
• Doctor of Humane Letters, Bard College, NY 1977
• Doctor of Science, Weston MA., 1977
• Honorary Degree, Anna Maria College, MA., 1978
• Doctor of Humane Letters, Union College, New York 1978
• Doctor of Humane Letters, D'Youville College, New York 1979
• Doctor of Science, Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1979
• Doctor of Divinity, 1996

See also

Dean Foundation : recipient of the Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Award

Selected bibliography

• On Death & Dying, (Simon & Schuster/Touchstone), 1969
• Questions & Answers on Death & Dying, (Simon & Schuster/Touchstone), 1972
• Death: The Final Stage of Growth, (Simon & Schuster/Touchstone), 1974
• Questions and Answers on Death and Dying: A Memoir of Living and Dying, Macmillan, 1976. ISBN 0025671200.
• To Live Until We Say Goodbye, (Simon & Schuster/Touchstone), 1978
• The Dougy Letter -A Letter to a Dying Child, (Celestial Arts/Ten Speed Press), 1979
• Quest, Biography of EKR (Written with Derek Gill), (Harper & Row), 1980
• Working It Through, (Simon & Schuster/Touchstone), 1981
• Living With Death & Dying, (Simon & Schuster/Touchstone), 1981
• Remember The Secret, (Celestial Arts/Ten Speed Press), 1981
• On Children & Death, (Simon & Schuster), 1985
• AIDS: The Ultimate Challenge, (Simon & Schuster), 1988
• On Life After Death, (Celestial Arts), 1991
• Death is of Vital Importance, (Out of Print- Now The Tunnel and the Light), 1995
• Unfolding the Wings of Love (Germany only - Silberschnur), 1996
• Making the Most of the Inbetween, (Various Foreign), 1996
• Aids & Love, The Conference in Barcelona, (Spain), 1996
• Longing to Go Back Home, (Germany only - Silberschnur), 1997
• Working It Through: An Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Workshop on Life, Death, and Transition, Simon & Schuster, 1997. ISBN 0684839423.
• The Wheel of Life: A Memoir of living and dying, (Simon & Schuster/Scribner), 1997
• Why Are We Here, (Germany only - Silberschnur), 1999
• The Tunnel and the Light, (Avalon), 1999
• Life Lessons: Two Experts on Death and Dying Teach Us about the Mysteries of Life and Living, with David Kessler, Scribner, 2001. ISBN 0684870746.
• On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss, with David Kessler. Scribner, 2005. ISBN 0743266285.
• Real Taste of Life: A photographic Journal

Quotes

• "People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within."
• "Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose, there are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from."
• "It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth - and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up, we will then begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had."

Further reading

• Quest: The Life of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, by Derek Gill. Ballantine Books (Mm), 1982. ISBN 0345300947.
• The Life Work of Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and Its Impact on the Death Awareness Movement, by Michèle Catherine Gantois Chaban. E. Mellen Press, 2000. ISBN 0773483020.
• Elisabeth Kubler-Ross: Encountering Death and Dying, by Richard Worth. Published by Facts On File, Inc., 2004. ISBN 0791080277.

References

1. ^ Turn on, tune in, drop dead by Ron Rosenbaum, HARPER'S, July 1982, pages 32-42
2. ^ Newman, Laura. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. (2004). British Medical Journal, 329 (7466), 627. Retrieved November 17, 2006.
3. ^ de.wikipedia
4. ^ ^{a b} Playboy Interview with Elizabeth Kubler-Ross Playboy Magazine, May, 1981
5. ^ TIME.com, The Conversion of Kubler-Ross, TIME, November 12, 1979
6. ^ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in the Afterworld of Entities by Kate Coleman, New West, 30 July 1979
7. ^ Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth
8. ^ Kinofenster.de (German)

• Tea With Elisabeth tributes to Hospice Pioneer Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, complied by Fern Stewart Welch, Rose Winters and Ken Ross, Published by Quality of Life Publishing Co 2009 ISBN 978-0-9816219-9-9

External links

• Elisabeth Kübler-Ross: Kübler-Ross's home page.
• Women's International Center biography
• Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Foundation
• Obituary in The Guardian
• Obituary in The Economist
• "Dead Like Her: How Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Went Around the Bend" by Ron Rosenbaum in Slate
• Featured on public radio's Kindred Spirits
• Examiner.com's Top Ten near-death experience books: Elisabeth Kübler-Ross' On Life After Death

,