Microsoft Word Elisabeth Kubler-Ross On Death And Dying doc

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On Death and Dying By Elisabeth Kubler-Ross 
 
 
Contents: 
 
 
* Foreword by C. Murray Parkes 
 * 
Acknowledgments 
 * 
Preface 
 
Section 
          Title 
                       Page 
 
I 
On the Fear of Death .................. 
 
 
 
 
 
II 
Attitudes Toward Death and Dying .................. 
 
 
 
III First 
Stage: 
Denial 
and 
Isolation 
.................. 
    
IV 
Second 
Stage: 
Anger 
.................. 
     
V 
Third 
Stage: 
Bargaining 
.................. 
     
VI 
Fourth Stage: Depression .................. 
 
 
 
 
VII 
Fifth 
Stage: 
Acceptance 
.................. 
     
VIII 
Hope 
.................. 
       
IX 
The 
Patient's 
Family 
.................. 
     
X 
Some Interviews with Terminally I'll Patients ..................   
 
XI 
Reactions to the Seminar on Death and Dying ..................   
 
XII 
Therapy with the Terminally Ill ..................  
 
 
 
 
 
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Foreword 
 
by C. Murray Parkes 
 
°I wish I could tell people how nice it can be to die of cancer." These surprising words were spoken 
to me recently by a woman who died peacefully a few days later. She never met Dr. Kubler-Ross, 
but I do not doubt that, had she been a patient in Billings Hospital, she would have been glad of the 
opportunity to talk about dying at Dr. Ross's seminar and to have attempted to exorcise the 
irrational fears to which doctors and clergy as well as patients and their relatives are subject. 
 
Not that it is entirely irrational to fear death. Whatever we believe is to come after death, the loss of 
so many of the things that we prize must be painful, and since our own death gives grief to others it 
is natural that we feel sad on their behalf. 
 
But the relinquishment of life is possible (particularly if, through illness, our body has lost its 
appetite for living), and grief can pass. Those who have the privilege of caring for the person who 
is about to die know that the final phase of life can be a time of peaceful acceptance, a time of calm 
which contrasts with the tensions and frustrations of the battle for survival. 
 

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"Can be"-but, too often, is not. Too many things militate against a fitting approach to death. Despite 
all evidence to the contrary, we insist on assuming we are immortal and assuring each other that all 
of us are on a space walk, immune from the laws of celestial gravity. "Don't worry," says the doctor, 
"it's only a little ulcer"; "Come now," says the nurse, "You mustn't talk like that, you're going to be 
all right." 
 
A well-rounded life should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Not just for reasons of 
symmetry but because, though I may be mortal, the social system of which I am a part is immortal 
and my arrival into and departure from that social system are important events which need to be 
prepared for. Medicine should not confine itself to the prevention of death any more than family 
planning should confine itself to the prevention of birth. But it is, perhaps, no coincidence that the 
century which produced 
 
(VIII) 
 
Marie Stopes and Alexander Fleming also produced Grantly Dick Reid and Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. 
It seems that incipient mortality, though less easy to predict than incipient nativity, is equally a 
proper matter for preparation and study. 
 
Dr. Ross is not alone in her concern for those who are about to die. Important work has been done 
in Britain by Professor John Hinton and Dr. Cicely Saunders, and already two scientific journals 
are appearing in the United States that deal exclusively with matters pertaining to death and 
bereavement." France too has its "Societe de Thanatologie de la Langue Francaise", which 
publishes a regular Bulletin. 
 
But death (like life) is too serious a subject to be taken solemnly, and one of the most cheerful, 
friendly places I know is a small institution in south London which specializes in the treatment of 
cancer patients with a prognosis of six weeks or less. Here the aim is to augment the quality rather 
than the quantity of the life that remains to each patient, and if there are times of sorrow and regret 
when patients and their families face up to the real disappointments that occur, there are also times 
of happiness and peace when people stop striving for unreal ends and make a good job of a real 
ending. 
 
In this book we shall find described the way in which some American people coped with death. 
Despite the cultural differences, they are very similar to people in the United Kingdom and there is 
no need for me to attempt to translate the clear exposition which Dr. Ross has given us. Others 
might (and probably will) adopt a different terminology when describing the phases through which 
the dying patient passes in the course of his illness. Since individual variation is so great, it is 
unlikely that any one conceptual system could be applied to all. But the overall picture, and the 
illustrative examples on which it is based, must stand. They stand as a reproach to some, an 
encouragement to others, and a lesson to all. 
 
This book is important reading for nurses, doctors, clergy, and others whose work brings them into 
contact with the dying. It is also recommended to any reader who refuses to believe that the best 
way to deal with fear is to run away. 
 
* One has the awesome title of The Journal of Thanatology and the other Omega. 

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