Often times, people feel uncomfortable talking to and interacting with a person who is dying. This is at least partly because we have no way to understand their perspective, and what they are experiencing mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
In 1969 Elizabeth Kubler-Ross wrote On Death and Dying. Research and interviews began in 1965 and encountered problems because (1) There is no real way to study the psychological aspects of dying and (2) Patients were often willing to talk but it was hard to convince the doctors.The stages of the Kubler-Ross theory include denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.These can be described in detail as-
1. Denial- Used by almost all patients in some form. It is a usually temporary shock response …show more content…
Acceptance: This is not a "happy" stage, it is usually void of feelings. It takes a while to reach this stage and a person who fights until the end will not reach it. It consists of basically giving up and realizing that death is inevitable.
Criticisms of Kubler-Ross
There exists no real evidence that stages are present in coping with death: Kastenbaum offers this as his first criticism of the stage theory. Using the term "stages" implies a set order of set conditions. He asserts that there is no evidence that dying people go through the exact Kubler-Ross stages in their proper order. Any patient could experience the stages in a different order, or could experience emotions not even mentioned in the Kubler-Ross stages.
More specifically, there is no evidence that people coping with their impending death move through all of stages one through five: Kastenbaum explains that in her research Kubler-Ross showed that various patients exhibited qualities from the five different stages, but no one patient demonstrated all five stages in order. Knowing this, any emotional experience during the dying process of a person could be considered a …show more content…
Had Kubler-Ross done this, her theory would be more valid. Suggestions for other methods of research are behavioral studies and personal diaries kept by patients. This might make up for some of the flaws of the interview process. Some flaws are the fact that the information gathered by the interviewer may vary depending on the relationship between the researcher and the patient. Also, what a patient feels and what a patients reveals in an interview may be two different
In 1969 Elizabeth Kubler-Ross wrote On Death and Dying. Research and interviews began in 1965 and encountered problems because (1) There is no real way to study the psychological aspects of dying and (2) Patients were often willing to talk but it was hard to convince the doctors.The stages of the Kubler-Ross theory include denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.These can be described in detail as-
1. Denial- Used by almost all patients in some form. It is a usually temporary shock response …show more content…
Acceptance: This is not a "happy" stage, it is usually void of feelings. It takes a while to reach this stage and a person who fights until the end will not reach it. It consists of basically giving up and realizing that death is inevitable.
Criticisms of Kubler-Ross
There exists no real evidence that stages are present in coping with death: Kastenbaum offers this as his first criticism of the stage theory. Using the term "stages" implies a set order of set conditions. He asserts that there is no evidence that dying people go through the exact Kubler-Ross stages in their proper order. Any patient could experience the stages in a different order, or could experience emotions not even mentioned in the Kubler-Ross stages.
More specifically, there is no evidence that people coping with their impending death move through all of stages one through five: Kastenbaum explains that in her research Kubler-Ross showed that various patients exhibited qualities from the five different stages, but no one patient demonstrated all five stages in order. Knowing this, any emotional experience during the dying process of a person could be considered a …show more content…
Had Kubler-Ross done this, her theory would be more valid. Suggestions for other methods of research are behavioral studies and personal diaries kept by patients. This might make up for some of the flaws of the interview process. Some flaws are the fact that the information gathered by the interviewer may vary depending on the relationship between the researcher and the patient. Also, what a patient feels and what a patients reveals in an interview may be two different