Kübler-Ross model

[edit] Enumeration of stages

The stages are:

1. Denial: The initial stage: "It can't be happening."
2. Anger: "Why ME? It's not fair?!" (either referring to God, oneself, or anybody perceived, rightly or wrongly, as "responsible")
3. Bargaining: "Just let me live to see my son graduate."
4. Depression: "I'm so sad, why bother with anything?"
5. Acceptance: "It's going to be OK."

Kübler-Ross originally applied these stages to any form of catastrophic personal loss (job, income, freedom). This also includes the death of a loved one and divorce. Kübler-Ross also claimed these steps do not necessarily come in order, nor are they all experienced by all patients, though she stated a person will always experience at least two.

Others have noticed that any significant personal change can follow these stages. For example, experienced criminal defence attorneys are aware that defendants who are facing stiff sentences, yet have no defences or mitigating factors to lessen their sentences, often experience the stages. Accordingly, they must get to the acceptance stage before they are prepared to plead guilty.

Additionally, the change in circumstances does not always have to be a negative one, just significant enough to cause a grief response to the loss (Scire, 2007). Accepting a new work position, for example, causes one to lose their routine, workplace friendships, familiar drive to work, even customary lunch sources.

[edit] Grief

In popular culture these stages are commonly applied only to news of one's own impending death. The notion that to resolve grief they must all be followed, in order, is also common.

In 1974, "The Handbook of Psychiatry" defined grief as "...the normal response to the loss of a loved one by death," and response to other kinds of losses were labelled "Pathological Depressive Reactions." This has become the predominant way for counsellors and professionals to approach grief, loss, tragedy and traumatic experiences.[1]

[edit] Research on the theory

A February 2007 study of bereaved individuals, from Yale University obtained some findings that were consistent with the five-stage theory and others that were inconsistent with it [2].

[edit] In popular culture

• In the Marvel Comics series Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America, each of the five issues deals with a different stage of grief following the death of Captain America: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.
• In the TV show Frasier, when Frasier is unemployed, there is an episode where he cycles through the stages. (Season 6)
• In the TV cartoon show The Simpsons, the 5 stages were also shown in the episode "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish", where Homer discovers he will most likely die after eating a poisonous fugu fish. Dr Julius Hbibert tells him the 5 stages of grief, and which Homer replies instantly with the according emotion after each one (although fear/depression and bargaining are a different way around).
• In the TV cartoon show Robot Chicken, the 5 stages are cited by a giraffe when he is sinking in quicksand, but by the time he gets to "acceptance", he hits the bottom.
• In the TV show Scrubs Dr Cox and J.D. become friendly with a long-term patient, Mrs. Wilks. When her condition worsens and her death becomes inevitable, they go through the 5 stages of grief and gets help from the hospitals grief counselor, Dr Hedrick, in the episode My Five Stages.
• In the TV show Dead Like Me, George Lass notes that dead people go through the same cycle, as she does moments after her death. Her acceptance takes a little longer to accomplish than the other four which she passes through rapidly for comedic effect.
• In the Comic series Cat and Girl, Cat announces to Girl that a new stage of grief, Baklava, has been introduced between Anger and Bargaining in issue 144.
• In the 1979 Film All That Jazz, stand-up performer Davis Newman, commenting on the impending/happening death of the main character, says, "This chick, man, without the sole benefit of dying herself, has broken down the process of dying into five stages: anger, denial, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
• In an episode of Reba, Van claims to go through the Five Stages of Grief after finding out his injury will not allow him to play pro football anymore. ("I went through denial, anger and unusually dry skin. But now I'm a new, moist man!")
• In the 2002 Film Life or Something Like It, after Prophet Jack tells Lanie Kerrigan that she will die within a week, she proceeds through the stages rather quickly. Prophet Jack takes notice of this and directly references the five stages of grief and how quickly she is moving through them.
• Anna, in Scene 14 of Paula Vogel's The Baltimore Waltz (1992) passes through, what are called six stages of the Ross model. Hope is the sixth stage. Anna, also adds a seventh stage: lust, where the illness of the body is fought with the health of the body. The health of the body in this instance manifests itself as sexual activity.
• Edward Albee's The Lady From Dubuque, and Michael Crisofer's The Shadowbox are noted in various academic journals and articles, and interviews, as influenced by the Ross model.
• Darren Hayes, an Australian musician, has a song called "Unlovable", which includes the lyric "Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, just a few stages of acceptance that it's really over" in reference to experiencing these five stages after ending a relationship.

[edit] References

• Kubler-Ross, E (1973) On Death and Dying, Routledge, ISBN 0415040159
• Kubler-Ross, E (2005) On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss, Simon & Schuster Ltd, ISBN 0743263448
• Scire, P (2007). "Applying Grief Stages to Organizational Change."