Elizabeth (Kubler) Kubler-Ross (1926 - 2004)

Biography

Elizabeth Kübler-Ross was a Swiss-American psychiatrist best known for her work On Death and Dying, which focuses on the socio-emotional needs of terminally ill patients and their families and the stages of grief. This work was foundational to the introduction of hospice care and advanced medical directives.

1926 Elizabeth was born on Jul 8th, 1926 in Zürich Switzerland. She was the first of a set of triplets, along with her identical sister Ericka, minutes later came Eva. During WWll, Elizabeth became involved in working with refugees.

1957 Elizabeth obtained her medical degree from the University of Zürich. It was here she met her husband Manny Ross, a fellow med student from America. She later said:

In Switzerland, I was educated in line with the basic premise: work work work. You are only a valuable human being if you work. This is utterly wrong. Half working, half dancing - that is the right mixture. I myself have danced and played too little.

1958 Married Emanual "Manny" Ross. They moved to New York and she began residency at Manhattan State Hospital. Dr. Ross had wanted to have her residency in Pediatrics but due to being pregnant they would not allow it, so she chose psychiatry.

She was appalled at the neglect and poor treatment of mentally ill patients. She developed a plan of care that was centered around each patient's needs. This protocol resulted in significant improvement in the mental health of 94% of her patients ^[1]. This patient-centered care formed the foundation for the rest of her life's work.

1962 Dr. Ross accepted a position with the University of Colorado. She completed her training in psychiatry the next year.

Dr. Ross's duties during this time included working with the dying. Dr. Ross's book "Death and Dying" states that during this period, the beginning of what would become known as the "Kubler-Ross stages of grief" began to form. She began giving lectures to medical students as well as theological students, exposing them to dying patients and providing insight into dying patients' needs.

1965 Dr. Ross and her family moved to Chicago and became an assistant professor of psychiatr at the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine. Dr. Ross also completed 39 months of psychoanalysis training. While at Chicago, continued giving lectures, and she began structuring what would become her life's work. Dr. Ross developed a series of seminars using interviews with terminal patients.

1969 Dr. Ross released her first endeavor for the general public, On Death and Dying: What the dying have to teach doctors, nurses, clergy, and their own families. Courses were offered throughout the academic and professional world. It offered insight on the needs of the dying; but in reality, it offered guidance map on any type of loss, divorce, death of a close one, etc.

• In the book, Dr. Kubler-Ross puts forth the Five Stages of Grieving.
  

1. Denial, It's a mistake
   
2. Anger, I can't believe this is happening
   
3. Bargaining, God if you will just fix this
   
4. Depression
   
5. Acceptance, stepping away; when someone is dying and they have accepted their death, they will begin moving away from close ones.
   

• Dr. Ross also explored the phenomenon of near-death experiences. She reported on her interviews for the first time in her book On Death and Dying.

Kubler-Ross can be recognized as a moving force in the development of hospice care. She did not believe in euthanasia, she believed it did not allow someone to complete their life work.

1977 The Ross's purchased forty acres in Escondido, Calif (near San Diego, California) Dr. Kubler-Ross developed what she hoped would become a healing center "Shanti Nilaya" (Home of Peace).

1979 Elizabeth and her husband divorced.

1995 Dr. Kubler- Ross suffered multiple strokes and was left in a wheelchair, her healing center closed around this period.

1999 One of Time Magazine's "100 Most Important Thinkers of the Century."

2002 Dr. Ross was interviewed by the Arizona Republican and said, "she found waiting for death was unbearable. That she wanted to control the time of her death" so it is possible that in the end, she changed her mind about euthanasia.

2004 Dr. Kubler-Ross passed away in 2004.

Dr. Kubler Ross was widely recognized for her pioneering work. There were things she wished to be more involved in such as pediatric Aids and Aids in general but due to the timing of her bad health she was unable to

In 2007, she was posthumously inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

Sources

1. ↑ National Women's Hall of Fame

• "Elisabeth Kübler-Ross; Changing the Face of Medicine", National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. NLM.NIH.gov Last updated: 03 June 2015. Published: 14 October 2003.

Publications

• On Death and Dying, by Dr. Elizabeth Kubler- Ross

• Wikipedia: Elizabeth Kübler-Ross

• Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages ...By Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, David Kessler

• Living With Death and Dying How To Communicate with the terminally ill. by Dr. Kubler- Ross
  

• Elizabeth Kubler-Ross by Richard Worth

• On Death and Dying: What the Dying Have to teach Doctors

Doctor Kubler- Ross's Honorary degrees

• Doctor of Science, H.C., Albany Medical College, New York 1974
  
• Doctor of Laws, University of Notre Dame, IN.,1974
  
• Doctor of Science, Smith College 1975
  
• Doctor of Science, Molloy College, Rockville Centre, NY, 1976
  
• Doctor of Humanities, Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, IN. 1975
  
• Doctor of Laws, Hamline University, MN. 1975
  
• Doctor of Humane Letters, Amherst College, MA. 1975
  
• Doctor of Humane Letters, Loyola University, IL 1975
  
• Doctor of Humanities, Hood College, MD 1976
  
• Doctor of Letters, Rosary College, IL. 1976
  
• Doctor of Pedagogy, Keuka College, NY 1976
  
• Doctor of Humane Science, University of Miami, FL 1976
  
• Doctor of Humane Letters, Bard College, NY 1977
  
• Doctor of Science, Regis College, Weston MA., 1977
  
• Honorary Degree, Anna Maria College, MA., 1978
  
• Doctor of Humane Letters, Union College, New York 1978
  
• Doctor of Humane Letters, D'Youville College, New York 1979
  
• Doctor of Science, Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1979
  
• Doctor of Divinity, 1996