Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (July 8, 1926 – August 24, 2004) was a Swiss-American
psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...
, a pioneer in
near-death studies, author, and developer of the five stages of grief, also known as the "
Kübler-Ross model
According to the model of the five stages of grief, or the Kübler-Ross model, those experiencing sudden grief following an abrupt realization (shock) go through five emotions: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
Critics of t ...
".
In 1970, Kübler-Ross delivered the Ingersoll Lecture at Harvard University, focusing on her book, ''On Death and Dying'' (1969). By July 1982, Kübler-Ross had taught 125,000 students in death and dying courses in colleges, seminaries, medical schools, hospitals, and social-work institutions. In 1999, the New York Public Library named ''On Death and Dying'' one of its "Books of the Century," and ''Time'' magazine recognized her as one of the "100 Most Important Thinkers" of the 20th century. Throughout her career, Kübler-Ross received over 100 awards, including twenty honorary degrees, and was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2024, Simon & Schuster released a list of their 100 most notable books, including Kübler-Ross's ''On Death & Dying''. Stanford University's Green Library currently houses her remaining archives which are available for study.
Early life and education
Elisabeth Kübler was born on July 8, 1926, in
Zürich
Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
, Switzerland, into a Protestant Christian Family. She was one of a set of
triplets, two of whom were identical. Her life was jeopardized due to complications, weighing only 2 pounds at birth, but she said she survived due to her mother's love and attentiveness.
Elisabeth later contracted pneumonia and was hospitalized at age 5, during which she had her first experience with death as her roommate died peacefully. Her early experiences with death led her to believe that, because death is a necessary stage of life, one must be prepared to face it with dignity and peace.
During World War II, at only 13 years of age, Kübler-Ross worked as a laboratory assistant for refugees in Zürich. From a young age, she was determined to become a doctor despite her father's efforts in forcing her to become a secretary for his business. She refused him and left home at 16.
She began working as a housemaid for a mean woman, where she met a doctor who wished to help her in becoming a doctor. She then worked as an apprentice for a Dr. Braun, a scientist in her hometown, up until he went bankrupt. Here, she remembered getting her first lab coat with her name on it.
On May 8th, 1945, at the age of eighteen, she joined the
International Voluntary Service for peace as an activist.
Two days later, she crossed the border into France, leaving her home of Switzerland for the first time. Her first assignment was to help rebuild the French town of Ecurcey. For the next four years, she continued to do relief work in France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, and Poland.
In 1947, Kübler-Ross visited the
Majdanek concentration camp
Majdanek (or Lublin) was a Nazi concentration and extermination camp built and operated by the SS on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It had three gas chambers, two wooden gallows, ...
in Poland, an experience that profoundly affected her understanding of compassion and the resilience of the human spirit. The harrowing stories of survivors left an indelible mark on her, inspiring her life's mission to assist and heal others. She was also profoundly affected by the images of hundreds of butterflies carved into some of the walls there. To Kübler-Ross, the butterflies—these final works of art by those children facing death—stayed with her for years and influenced her thinking about the end of life.
Later that year, she briefly lived with Romani people
{{Infobox ethnic group
, group = Romani people
, image =
, image_caption =
, flag = Roma flag.svg
, flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress
, po ...
near the Polish/Russian border town of Bialystok. During this period, she faced the imminent closure of borders by the Russians. She encountered American officers who assisted in her evacuation on a transport plane from Poland to Berlin.
After returning to Zürich, Kübler-Ross worked for a dermatologist named Dr. Kan Zehnder at the Canton Hospital an apprentice.
After this time, she worked to support herself in a variety of jobs, gaining major experience in hospitals while volunteering to provide aid to refugees. Following this, she went on to attend the
University of Zurich
The University of Zurich (UZH, ) is a public university, public research university in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of the ...
to study medicine, and graduated in 1957.
Career
Academic career
After graduating from the University of Zurich in 1957, Kübler-Ross moved to New York in 1958 to work and continue her studies.
She commenced her psychiatric residency in the
Manhattan State Hospital on July 6, 1959, marking the beginning of her career working by creating her own treatments for those who were schizophrenic along with those faced with the title "hopeless patient", a term used at the time to reference terminal patients. These treatment programs would work to restore the patient's sense of dignity and self-respect. Kübler-Ross also intended to reduce the medications that kept these patients overly sedated, and found ways to help them relate to the outside world.
During this time, Ross was horrified by the neglect and abuse of psychiatric patients as well as the imminently dying. She found that the patients were often treated with little care or completely ignored by the hospital staff. This realization made her strive to make a difference in the lives of these individuals. She developed a program that focused on the individual care and attention for each patient. This program worked incredibly well, and resulted in significant improvement in the mental health of 94% of her patients.
In 1962, she accepted a position at the
University of Colorado School of Medicine
The University of Colorado School of Medicine is the medical school of the University of Colorado system. It is located at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado, Aurora, Colorado, one of the four University of Colorado campuses, six mil ...
. There, Kübler-Ross worked as a junior faculty member and gave her first interview of a young terminally ill woman in front of a roomful of medical students. Her intentions were not to be an example of pathology, but she wanted to depict a human being who desired to be understood as she was coping with her illness and how it has impacted her life.
She stated to her students:
Now you are reacting like human beings instead of scientists. Maybe now you'll not only know how a dying patient feels but you will also be able to treat them with compassion – the same compassion that you would want for yourself
Kübler-Ross completed her training in
psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of deleterious mental disorder, mental conditions. These include matters related to cognition, perceptions, Mood (psychology), mood, emotion, and behavior.
...
in 1963, and moved to Chicago in 1965. She sometimes questioned the practices of traditional psychiatry that she observed. She also undertook 39 months of classical
psychoanalysis
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...
training in Chicago. She became an instructor at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
's
Pritzker School of Medicine
The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine is the M.D.-granting unit under the Biological Sciences Division of the University of Chicago. It is located on the university's main campus in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago and mat ...
, where she began to conduct a regular weekly educational seminar consisting of live interviews with terminally ill patients. She had her students participate in these despite a large amount of resistance from the medical staff.
By 1966, Kübler-Ross was giving regular weekly seminars on dying patients at her hospital. In late 1966, she wrote a seventeen-page article titled "The Dying Patient as Teacher: An Experiment and an Experience" for the December issue of ''The Chicago Theological Seminary Journal,'' which was themed "On Death and Dying." Although she expressed concerns about her English proficiency, the editor reassured her. Despite the journal's limited circulation, a copy of her article reached an editor at Macmillan Publishing Company in New York City. Consequently, on July 7, 1967, Macmillan offered Kübler-Ross a contract to expand her work into a 256-page book titled "On Death & Dying." Coincidentally, just six days later, on July 13, 1967, St. Christopher's Hospice, the first modern hospice, admitted its inaugural patient. The book was officially registered with the US copyright office on May 19, 1969. Despite delays, the book was eventually published in November 1969 and quickly became a best-seller, profoundly altering her life. Notably, as of December 18, 1976, "On Death & Dying" remained on the New York Times Best Seller list for trade paperbacks, listing at #3.
In November 1969, ''
Life
Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...
'' magazine ran an article on Kübler-Ross, bringing public awareness to her work outside of the medical community. The response was enormous and influenced Kübler-Ross's decision to focus her career on working with the terminally ill and their families. The intense scrutiny her work received also had an impact on her career path. Kübler-Ross stopped teaching at the university to work privately on what she called the "greatest mystery in science"—death.
During the 1970's, Kübler-Ross became a champion of the worldwide
hospice movement. She traveled to over twenty countries on six continents initiating various hospice and palliative care programs. In 1970, Kübler-Ross spoke at the prestigious
Ingersoll Lecture at Harvard University on the subject of death and dying. On August 7, 1972, she spoke to the
United States Senate Special Committee on Aging
The United States Senate Special Committee on Aging is a special committee in the United States Senate established on 1961. It was initially established as a temporary committee. It became a permanent Senate committee in 1977. As a special commi ...
to promote the "Death With Dignity" movement. In 1977, she was named "Woman of the Year" by ''
Ladies' Home Journal
''Ladies' Home Journal'' was an American magazine that ran until 2016 and was last published by the Meredith Corporation. It was first published on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th centur ...
''. In 1978, Kübler-Ross cofounded the American Holistic Medical Association.
Healing center California
Kübler-Ross was one of the central figures in the
hospice care
Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life b ...
movement, believing that
euthanasia
Euthanasia (from : + ) is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering.
Different countries have different Legality of euthanasia, euthanasia laws. The British House of Lords Select committee (United Kingdom), se ...
prevents people from completing their "unfinished business".
In 1977, she founded "Shanti Nilaya" (Home of Peace) on forty acres of land in Escondido, California. At this time, Kübler-Ross began conducting "Life, Death, and Transition (LTD) workshops with the goal of assisting people to resolve their "unfinished business", using Shanti Nilaya as a setting for some of these five-day workshops. She also intended it as a healing center for the dying and their families. She was also a co-founder of the
American Holistic Medical Association during this time period.
In the late 1970s, after interviewing thousands of patients who had died and been resuscitated, she became interested in
out-of-body experiences
An out-of-body experience (OBE or sometimes OOBE) is a phenomenon in which a person perceives the world as if from a location outside their physical body. An OBE is a form of autoscopy (literally "seeing self"), although this term is more commo ...
,
mediumship
Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or ghost, spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or ...
,
spiritualism
Spiritualism may refer to:
* Spiritual church movement, a group of Spiritualist churches and denominations historically based in the African-American community
* Spiritualism (beliefs), a metaphysical belief that the world is made up of at leas ...
, and other ways of attempting to contact the dead. This led to a scandal connected to the Shanti Nilaya Healing Center, in which she was duped by Jay Barham, founder of the Church of the Facet of the Divinity. Claiming he could
channel the spirits of the departed and summon ethereal "entities", he encouraged church members to engage in sexual relations with the "spirits". He may have hired several women to play the parts of female spirits for this purpose. Kubler-Ross' friend Deanna Edwards was invited to attend a service to ascertain whether allegations against Barham were true. He was found to be naked and wearing only a turban when Edwards unexpectedly pulled masking tape off the light switch and flipped on the light.
["Elisabeth Kubler-Ross"](_blank)
''Playboy
''Playboy'' (stylized in all caps) is an American men's Lifestyle journalism, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, available both online and in print. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $ ...
''. May 1981. Despite the accusation of sexual misconduct Kübler-Ross defended him for over a year. The authorities did not press charges against the Barhams. Then she announced the ending of her association with both Jay Barham and his wife Martha in her ''Shanti Nilaya Newsletter'' (issue 7) on June 7, 1981.
Investigations on near-death experiences
Kübler-Ross also dealt with the phenomenon of
near-death experience
A near-death experience (NDE) is a profound personal experience associated with death or impending death, which researchers describe as having similar characteristics. When positive, which the great majority are, such experiences may encompa ...
. She was also an advocate for spiritual guides and afterlife,
serving on the Advisory Board of the
International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS).
Kübler-Ross reported her interviews with the dying for the first time in her book, ''
On Death and Dying: What the Dying Have to Teach Doctors, Nurses, Clergy, and Their Own Families'' (1969). Originally, this book had a thirteenth chapter on near-death experiences but her colleagues strongly advised her to remove it for the sake of public acceptance, which she did before the book went to press.
In 1981, she appeared on an
Australian
Australian(s) may refer to:
Australia
* Australia, a country
* Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia
** European Australians
** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists
** Aboriginal Aus ...
radio documentary
A radio documentary is a spoken word radio format devoted to non-fiction narrative. It is broadcast on radio as well as distributed through media such as tape, CD, and podcast
A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital ...
about death and near-death experiences that aired on the
ABC, ''
And When I Die, Will I Be Dead?''
It was adapted into a book in 1987.
Kübler-Ross went on to write several books about near-death experiences (NDEs). Her book ''On Life After Death'' (1991) was compiled from three lectures she gave:
*"Leben und Sterben" (Living and Dying), a speech she made in Switzerland in December 1982 in the German language.
*"There is no Death", given in San Diego in 1977.
*"Life, Death, and Life After Death", a recorded lecture she gave in 1980.
The English language edition sold over 200,000 copies. The German Language edition also was a best seller with 100,000's sold.
Another book, ''The Tunnel and The Light'' (1999), originally entitled ''Death is of Vital Importance'', was also composed of various lectures she had previously given.
Life, Death, and Transition Workshops
In the late 1970s, Kübler-Ross developed a series of 5-day residential workshops aimed at helping individuals who were nearing the end of their lives to live more fully during their remaining time. These workshops were designed to accommodate not only the dying but also their caregivers, who were encouraged to participate in the sessions. The workshops provided a forum for patients to share their stories and express their fears, anger, and grief regarding their impending death. A recurring theme in the workshops was addressing regrets associated with perceived wasted time and energy related to unresolved childhood issues such as abuse and neglect. These unresolved issues often manifested as misplaced anger, perfectionism, controlling behavior, prioritization of material wealth over relationships, feelings of unworthiness, and a lack of meaning.
To address the intensity of these emotions, Dr. Kübler-Ross incorporated techniques to help participants externalize their emotions, including the release of buried rage, grief, and fear. This approach often facilitated a deeper understanding and resolution of long-standing pain, leading to a transformation of fear and grief into gratitude. Recognizing that caregivers also benefited from the workshops, Dr. Kübler-Ross opened the sessions to anyone seeking to live more fully until death.
A distinctive feature of the workshops was the use of impromptu crayon drawings, a technique influenced by the work of Jungian analyst Dr. Susan Bach. Dr. Kübler-Ross instructed participants on drawing interpretation to help uncover unconscious reasons for their attendance and to address past losses. Additionally, she presented a model of human development encompassing four parts— emotional, intellectual, physical, and spiritual—referred to as "The Four Quadrants," which forms the basis of her work in the beginnings of the palliative care movement. She also addressed what she called "the five core emotions" —fear, anger, natural jealousy, grief, and love—and their natural expressions and distortions.
Work with children
Throughout her career, Kübler-Ross extensively studied and wrote about children's perceptions of death. Her notable works include ''The Dougy Letter'' (1979), ''Living with Death and Dying'' (1981), and ''On Children and Dying'' (1983). These books explore how children understand, discuss, and respond to death, reflecting her insights into the unique ways children express their experiences and fears.
Kübler-Ross's work was partly driven by requests from patients and readers seeking a deeper understanding of the language used by terminally ill children to articulate their needs. In ''Living with Death and Dying'' (1981), she argues that children have a more nuanced awareness of death than often assumed and are more willing to discuss it openly.
Influenced by the work of Susan Bach and Gregg Furth, Kübler-Ross examined how children's drawings serve as a crucial means of communication. She identified two distinct types of communication related to death in children. "Nonverbal Symbolic Language" is used by younger children, who may express their understanding of death through drawings, pictures, or objects, as they might lack the verbal skills to articulate their feelings directly.
As children grow older, they may transition to "Verbal Symbolic Language," characterized by complex stories and unusual questions that serve to express their emotions and concerns about death. Children may be fearful of asking direct questions regarding their death, so they may come up with stories or strange questions that will meet their needs.
This form of communication reflects their evolving ability to articulate their feelings and fears, though they may still struggle with direct inquiries about death.
AIDS work
During a time when patients suffering from AIDS were being disowned and discriminated against for their illness, Kübler-Ross accepted them with open arms.
She conducted many workshops on life, death, grief, and
AIDS
The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...
in different parts of the world, teaching about the disease and working to reduce the stigma surrounding it. Later, she created a workshop meant solely for patients who had contracted AIDS; even though the majority of people who contracted AIDS at that time were gay men, women and children also contracted the disease. This surprised her, as she had not expected just how many children and babies had contracted the terminal illness. She noted in her book that babies typically contracted the disease through the mother or father or through contaminated blood transfusions, also remarking that older children that had the disease may have contracted it due to sexual assault from someone who was HIV-seropositive.
Prison hospice
During this period, Kübler-Ross developed an interest in the concept of prison hospice care. In the mid-1980's, the prison facility at Vacaville, California emerged as the primary site for delivering healthcare services to incarcerated individuals. In 1984, Kübler-Ross delegated one of her staff members, Irene Smith to conduct an investigative assessment of conditions at this institution. Subsequently, Kübler-Ross enlisted the aid of Nancy Jaicks Alexander, a workshop leader in Kübler-Ross' Life, Death, and Transition (LDT) workshops, to further explore avenues for enhancing end-of-life care for AIDS patients confined at the Vacaville facility. Nancy alongside her husband, Robert went on to co-found the first prison hospice in 1992. Concurrently, Kübler-Ross pursued additional prison-related initiatives in Hawaii, Ireland and Scotland throughout the 1980s. In June 1991, she held her first LDT workshop inside a prison at Edinburgh's Saughton Prison (HM Prison).
One of her greatest wishes was to build a
hospice
Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life b ...
for abandoned infants and children infected with HIV to give them a lasting home where they could live until their death. Kübler-Ross attempted to set this up in the late 1980s in Virginia, but local residents feared the possibility of infection and blocked the necessary re-zoning. In October 1994, she lost her house and many possessions, including photos, journals, and notes, to an
arson
Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...
fire that is suspected to have been set by opponents of her AIDS work.
Legacy and contributions
Kübler-Ross changed the way that the world looks at the terminally ill, she pioneered hospice care, palliative care,
bioethics
Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, me ...
, and near-death research, and was the first to bring terminally ill individuals' lives to the public eye.
Kübler-Ross was the driving force behind the movement for doctors and nurses alike to "treat the dying with dignity".
Balfour Mount, the first palliative care physician in Canada and the person who coined the term ''palliative care'', credits Kübler-Ross with sparking his interest in end-of-life care. Kübler-Ross wrote over 20 books on death and dying, which have been translated into 44 languages.
At the end of her life she was mentally active, co-authoring two books with
David Kessler including ''On Grief and Grieving'' (2005).
In 2018 Stanford University acquired the Kübler-Ross archives from her family and has started building a digital library of her papers, interviews and other archival material.
Following extensive work with dying patients, Kübler-Ross published ''
On Death and Dying'' in 1969, in which she proposed the now famous "
five stages" model as a pattern of adjustment: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. This model has since become widely accepted in academia and by the general public. In the graphic that was included in "On Death & Dying", Kübler-Ross mentions other emotions as being a part of this journey including: shock, partial denial, preparatory grief (anticipatory grief), hope, and decathexis.
The five-stage model has received some criticism by academics who argue against approaches that universally apply it to all bereaved groups or claim that grief should be expressed in a set number of rigidly linear stages. Kübler-Ross, with colleague David Kessler in ''On Grief and Grieving'', cautioned that the stages "are not stops on some linear timeline in grief. Not everyone goes through all of them or in a prescribed order." Dr. Allan Kellehear responded to the critics in the 40th anniversary edition's introduction to "On Death & Dying" the following, "the so-called “stage theory” that you will read in this book is openly described and discussed as a heuristic device. In other words, these stages are merely a set of categories artificially isolated and separately described so that the author can discuss each of these experiences more clearly and simply. The careful reader will note Kübler-Ross’s own repeated warnings that many of these “stages” overlap, occur together, or even that some reactions are missed altogether. To emphasize this conditional way of taking about stages, the word “stages” was even put in inverted commas to emphasize their tentative nature in the only diagrammatic representation of these ideas in the book."
In the 1980's, an increasing number of companies began using the five stages model to explain reactions to change and loss. This is now known as the "Kübler-Ross Change Curve" and is used by a variety of
''Fortune'' 500 companies in the US and internationally.
The Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Foundation continues her work through a series of international chapters around the world. She received many awards and honors during her career, including honorary degrees from various universities, and is featured in a photograph exhibit at the Virginia headquarters of the
National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, ce ...
. The ''
American Journal of Bioethics'' devoted its entire December 2019 issue to the 50th anniversary of ''On Death and Dying''. For instance, in his article "Everything I Really Needed to Know to Be a Clinical Ethicist, I Learned From Elisabeth Kübler-Ross," American bioethicist
Mark G. Kuczewski outlined how Kübler-Ross laid the foundation for clinical bioethics and emphasized the need to listen to patients for understanding their needs and improving their quality of life.
Personal life
In 1958, she married a fellow medical student and classmate from America, Emanuel "Manny" Ross, and moved to the United States. Together, they completed their internships at Long Island's
Glen Cove Community Hospital in New York.
After they married, she had their first child in 1960, a son named Kenneth, and in 1963, a daughter named Barbara.
The marriage dissolved in 1979.
They remained friends until his death on December 9, 1992.
Final years and death
Kübler-Ross endured a sequence of strokes from 1987 to 1994, none of which imposed lasting physical limitations upon her. Following a Virginia house fire on October 6, 1994, and subsequent transient ischemic attack (TIA), she relocated to Scottsdale, Arizona. During this period, the Healing Waters Farm and the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Center ceased operations in Headwaters, Virginia. The following month, she acquired a residence in the desert near Carefree, Arizona. After suffering a larger stroke in May 1995, she found herself living in a wheelchair and wished to be able to determine her time of death.
In 1997,
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954) is an American television presenter, talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and media proprietor. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show' ...
flew to Arizona to interview Kübler-Ross and discuss with her whether she herself was going through the
five stages of grief. July 2001 saw her traveling to Switzerland to celebrate her final birthday (her 75th) with her three triplet sisters. In a 2002 interview with ''
The Arizona Republic
''The Arizona Republic'' is an American daily newspaper published in Phoenix. Circulated throughout Arizona, it is the state's largest newspaper. Since 2000, it has been owned by the Gannett newspaper chain.
History
Early years
The newspap ...
'', she stated that she was ready for death and even welcomed it, calling God a "damned procrastinator".
From 2002 until August 2004, she was in a nursing home under hospice care, spending her final days there.
Kübler-Ross died with her two children at her side in Scottsdale on August 24, 2004, aged 78 of natural causes.
She was buried at the Paradise Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Scottsdale.
In 2005 her son, Ken Ross, founded the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona. The trademark 'Elisabeth Kübler-Ross,' along with all associated copyrights and other trademarks associated with Kübler-Ross, is managed and controlled by her children through the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Family Limited Partnership.
In popular culture
Since Kübler-Ross' death, many songs and albums have been named after her or dedicated to her. Songs such as "Kübler-Ross" have been named after her by artists including: Matthew B Everett (2008), Chuck Wilson (2010), Elephant Rifle (2010), Permute (2011), Taylor Whitelow of the Youth (2012), Dominic Moore (2015), Andy Jenkinson (2019)Alp Aybers (2020), Audio Medic (2021), O SIZE (2022), Kübler-Ross ''the band'' (2020), Norro (2024), and Mic Lanny & James Rock (2014). In 2008 Matt Elliott release, "The Kübler-Ross Model" on his album, "Howling Songs. 'In 2006, The Gnomes released a song track titled “Elisabeth Kübler-Ross has Died.” Notably, the Oxford-based band Spring Offensive incorporated excerpts of Kübler-Ross's voice three times in their 13:20-minute rock ballad 'The First of Many Dreams About Monsters,' a 2010 song about grief, death, and the singer's deceased mother."
In addition to songs, EP albums such as "Kübler-Ross" by Chine Drive (2023), "Kübler-Ross Soliloquies" album by Deadbeat (2023), "Kübler-Ross" album by Coachello (2024), and "Kübler-Ross (Five Stages of Grief)" album by Saint Juvi (2024) have been named in her remembrance.
Several musical artists have also titled albums based on Kübler-Ross’s books, such as ''Beyond the Shores (On Death & Dying)'' by Shores of Null (2020) and ''Wheel of Life'' by Japanese saxophonist Sadao Watanabe. Marina's 2019 album ''Love & Fear'' draws inspiration from Kübler-Ross's philosophy.
Kübler-Ross's impact extends to band names as well, with KÜBLER ROSS, a Swedish punk band founded by a former nurse, and Kübler-Ross, a synth/wave/industrial band from Glasgow, Scotland, whose album ''Kübler-Ross'' was nominated for Album of the Year in Scotland in 2021. A South Korean math rock band named ''
Dabda'', an acronym representing the Five Stages of Grief, was formed in 2014.
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
* ''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.
* ''Jedes Ende ist ein strahlender Beginn (Every Ending is a Bright Beginning)'' (German Language) 1992
* ''Death Is of Vital Importance'' (''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
* ''The Wheel of Life: A Memoir of Living and Dying'' (Simon & Schuster/Scribner), 1997
* ''Sehnsucht nach Hause (Longing to Go Back Home)'' (German Language only), 1998
* ''Warum wir hier sind (Why Are We Here)'' (German Language only), 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.
* ''On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss'', with
David Kessler. Scribner, 2005. .
* ''Real Taste of Life'': A photographic Journal, 2003.
* Is There Life After Death, Audio/CD, Sounds True, ISBN 9781591793786, 2005
* The American Journal of Bioethics - Special Issue: 50th Anniversary of "On Death & Dying" by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, 2019
References
Further reading
* ''Quest: The Life of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross'', by Derek Gill. Ballantine Books (Mm), 1982. .
* ''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. .
* ''Elisabeth Kubler-Ross: Encountering Death and Dying'', by Richard Worth. Published by Facts On File, Inc., 2004. .
* ''Tea with Elisabeth: Tributes to Hospice Pioneer Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross'', compiled by Fern Stewart Welch, Rose Winters and Ken Ross. Published by Quality of Life Publishing Co. 2009. .
''Stanford University Acquires the Kübler-Ross Archives'' Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Foundation website, 2019
''Recollections of Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross at the University of Chicago''(1965–70), by Mark Siegler, MD. Published by the ''American Journal of Bioethics'', 2019
''The Under-appreciated Influence of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross on the Development of Palliative Care for Children'' Bryan Sisk, MD. and Justin N. Baker, MD., National Library of Medicine, 2019
''Appreciating the Legacy of Kübler-Ross: One Clinical Ethicist’s Perspective''by Daniel O. Dugan, November 20, 2019
* ''Elisabeth Kübler-Ross as Astrophysicist: Emotional Intelligence and Resilience Unlock the Black Hole of Physician Burnout, Moral Distress, and Compassion Fatigue'', American Journal of Bioethics, 2019
* ''Death Education: An Approach from the Work of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross'', by João Carlos Macedo, Lambert Academic Press, 2020
* ''Angels in Alaska: My Adventure with Elisabeth Kubler-Ross''
''Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and Ireland''By RTE Radio 1 Ireland, July 19, 2021
* Open History of Psychology
''The Lives and Contributions of Marginalized Psychology Pioneers, 21. Kübler-Ross'' 2023
* ''UPLIFTING: Inspiring Stories of Loss, Change, and Growth Inspirited by the work of Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross'' by Dr. Katie Eastman, 2024
Viewing:
*
To Die Today', Filmmakers Library, New York, (1967)
*
People Are Talking'' Interview with Oprah and Dr. Kübler-Ross, (1974)
* ''On Death and Dying'', NBC special on the phenomenon of Death, (1974)
* ''Nothing Final: The Work of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross'', BBC, (1981)
*
Das Ende das Angst', Ein Portrat der Stebeforscherin, ''German Language'' (1981)
*
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross über Lebens und Sterbehilfe', Einen Vortrag an der Universität Zürich, Switzerland, ''German Language'' (1982)
''Elisabeth Kübler-Ross – Speaks to a dying patient''', Nova Interview (1983)''
*
To Live Until We Say Goodbye', Interview with Dr. Kübler-Ross, 55 min, (1983)
*
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Lectures on Children & Death', University of Washington, (1983)
''University of Washington:'' Interview by Dr. Thomas McCormick with Kübler-Ross (1984)
*
Ärztin Elisabeth Kübler-Ross: Spricht über Leben und Tod', Telfs, Österreich, ''German Language'' (1989)
* ''We're Almost Home Now: Elisabeth Kübler-Ross on Children and Death'', Rites of Passage, (1993)
* ''Oprah: Interview of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross'', Filmed at Kübler-Ross home, (1997)
* ''Elisabeth Kübler-Ross: Facing Death'' (''Elisabeth Kübler-Ross: Dem Tod ins Gesicht Sehen'') Director & write Stephan Haupt, 98 min, (2003)
* ''Pioneers of Hospice: Changing the Face of Dying'', Madison Deane Initiative, (2004)
External links
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross FoundationElisabeth Kübler-Ross papershoused at
Stanford Libraries
The Stanford University Libraries (SUL), formerly known as "Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources" ("SULAIR"), is the library system of Stanford University in California. It encompasses more than 24 libraries in all. S ...
Publications by and about Elisabeth Kubler-Rossin the catalog of the
Swiss National Library/Schweizerische Nationalbibliotek
Publications by and about Elisabeth Kübler-Rossin the catalog of the
German National Library/Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Publications by and about Elisabeth Kübler-Rossin the catalog of the
French National Library/ Bibliothèque Nationale de France
* a 2003 Swiss German documentary
* BBC's ''Witness History'' program �
"Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and the Five Stages of Grief" 2020
"The Queen of Dying: Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and the Five Stages" ''
Radiolab'', WNYC Studios, July 23, 2021
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kubler-Ross, Elisabeth
1926 births
2004 deaths
20th-century American women writers
American expatriates in Switzerland
American medical academics
American psychiatrists
American psychology writers
American self-help writers
American spiritual teachers
American spiritual writers
American women academics
American women psychiatrists
Grief
Hospice
Near-death experience researchers
American parapsychologists
People from Escondido, California
Scientists from Zurich
People involved with death and dying
Swiss emigrants to the United States
University of Chicago faculty
University of Colorado alumni
University of Zurich alumni
Writers from Scottsdale, Arizona