Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926–2004) was a Swiss-born American psychiatrist. An innovator in the field of palliative care and near-death studies, she revolutionized attitudes toward the treatment of the terminally ill. An early and essential contributor to the death awareness movement, she is well known for her theory of the five stages of grief, also known as the “Kübler-Ross Model.”
Born in Zurich, Kübler-Ross was one of a set of triplets. She studied medicine at the university there and immigrated to America in 1958. During her psychiatric residency, she began giving a series of lectures inspiring medical students on managing terminally ill patients.
An instructor at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine, Her extensive work with the dying led to the book On Death and Dying (1969.) It examined the process of dying, identifying five stages of emotion: denial, anger, bargaining with God, preparatory grief/depression, and acceptance.
Kübler-Ross is credited with facilitating the emerging hospice movement of the 1960s. She held controversial views on the afterlife, which dented her reputation in the 1980s. Other works include Living with Death and Dying (1981,) On Life after Death (1991,) and her autobiography, Wheel of Life (1997.)
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Negativity can only feed on negativity.
—Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
People are like stained glass windows—the true beauty can be seen only when there is light from within. The darker the night, the brighter the windows.
—Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Topics: Beauty
There is not much sense in suffering, since drugs can be given for pain, itching, and other discomforts. The belief has long died that suffering here on earth will be rewarded in heaven. Suffering has lost its meaning.
—Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Topics: Suffering
I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime.
—Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Topics: Responsibility
The opinion which other people have of you is their problem, not yours.
—Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
If we make our goal to live a life of compassion and unconditional love, then the world will indeed become a garden where all kinds of flowers can bloom and grow.
—Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Topics: Kindness, Living, Life, Love
Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion of death.
—Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Topics: Guilt, One liners, Bereavement
Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from.
—Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Topics: Life, Silence, Mistakes, Purpose, Living
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 a light from within.
—Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or even your bathtub.
—Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Topics: Silence
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