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Elisabeth
Kuebler-Ross was born in Switzerland in 1926. She was part
of a package deal--a triplet (and a two-pounder at that).
That she survived the birth (as did her two sisters, another two-pounder
and a more robust six-pounder) is something of a miracle. As
she explains, her early childhood was filled with other more
memorable experiences around death as well, including a long
battle with pneumonia and deathbed scenes of neighbors in her
small town.
In the aftermath of World War II, she was a volunteer in IVSP,
International Voluntary Service for Peace. She spent time in
Poland and
then Germany, aiding survivors of the concentration camps, as well
as
the defeated Germans, to rebuild their lives. She returned
to Switzerland and went to medical school, eventually marrying an
American student studying there.
After practicing as a small town family doctor, she came to the
U.S. in
the 1950s. Her plans to serve a residency in pediatrics were
changed to
psychiatry (because they didn't want someone who was
pregnant). In
Denver, after residency, she was asked to lecture to medical
students.
She chose a topic that was out of the ordinary, but something she
felt
at home with--death and dying.
In 1965, in Chicago, she continued her work in this area. At
the urging
of some theology students she began a weekly seminar with dying
patients, health professions students, (and eventually ) their
more
skeptical teachers. This experience led to the publication,
in 1969, of
her book, On Death and Dying. It is in this book that
the "stages" of
dying are discussed. The remainder of The Wheel of Life
deals with more
controversial aspects of Kuebler-Ross's life.
She passed away on August 24, 2004. |
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About our
people pages:
Because many visitors have asked for more information
about particular people whose words appear on the site,
we'll try to give you as much information as we can about
individuals. The Amazon links should give you access
to works by the author, though at times they'll display
other books if the author has written an essay or
introduction for those books. |
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You will not grow if
you sit in a beautiful flower garden,
but you will grow if you are sick, in pain, experience losses,
and if you do not put your head in the sand, but take the pain
and learn to accept it, not as a curse or punishment,
but as a gift to you with a very, very specific purpose.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
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