Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, 1926 - 2004
Born: 8 July 1926, Zürich, Switzerland
Died: 24 August 2004, Scottsdale, Arizona
Elisabeth Kübler was the first of three identical triplets, she knew she wanted to pursue a medical career from early childhood against her father's wishes. After high school she volunteered in a hospital in Zurich, then worked with refugees from WW II. Visiting the Nazi concentration camp at Majdanek she discovered butterflies carved into the wooden walls and adopted the butterfly's transition from chrysalis to adult as a symbol of the release of the soul at death. She received a medical degree at the University of Zurich, married Emmanuel Ross, and moved to the US. Working in a hospital in New York City she was appalled at the treatment of the dying, seeing doctors routinely conceal the gravity of patients' conditions from them and their families. She took a position at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in 1962, completed a degree in psychiatry the following year. She developed programs to emotionally support the dying and their families. In 1965 she moved to the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine. Here she started a program featuring interviews with the terminally ill to break through to nurses and doctors. Her work lead to the breakthrough book On Death and Dying in 1969, featuring the five stages of the Kübler-Ross model: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. This was the first of at least twenty books on the subject. She is credited with much of the growth of the hospice movement in the US, and most medical schools include her work on the required reading list. She established a hospice in Escondido, California and was the cofounder of the American Holistic Medical Association. She conducted workshops on the care of AIDs patients and treated many infants born with the syndrome. She moved the hospice to her own farm in Virginia in 1990 to reduce her traveling, but in 1995 she suffered a series of strokes and her Virginia home was destroyed by a fire believed to have been set by those opposed to her work with AIDs patients. She died at home of natural causes at age 78.
Biography from Wikipedia and Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Foundation
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Elisabeth Kubler-Ross quotes:
Quotes found : 40 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 3) 1 2 3 Next
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- As far as service goes, it can take the form of a million things. To do service, you don't have to be a doctor working in the slums for free, or become a social worker. Your position in life and what you do doesn't matter as much as how you do what you do. permalink
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross - Death is simply a shedding of the physical body like the butterfly shedding its cocoon. It is a transition to a higher state of consciousness where you continue to perceive, to understand, to laugh, and to be able to grow. permalink
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross - Dying is nothing to fear. It can be the most wonderful experience of your life. It all depends on how you have lived. permalink
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross - Dying is something we human beings do continuously, not just at the end of our physical lives on this earth. permalink
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross - For those who seek to understand it, death is a highly creative force. The highest spiritual values of life can originate from the thought and study of death. permalink
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross - Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion of death. permalink
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross - 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. permalink
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross - I say to people who care for people who are dying, if you really love that person and want to help them, be with them when their end comes close. Sit with them. You don't even have to talk. You don't have to do anything but really be there with them. permalink
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross - I've told my children that when I die, to release balloons in the sky to celebrate that I graduated. For me, death is a graduation. permalink
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross - If we could see that everything, even tragedy, is a gift in diguise, we would then find the best way to nourish the soul. permalink
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. permalink
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross - If you live each day of your life right, then you have nothing to fear. permalink
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross - 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. permalink
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross - It is difficult to accept death in this society because it is unfamiliar. In spite of the fact that it happens all the time, we never see it. permalink
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross - It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we're alive, to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are. permalink
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Quotes found : 40 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 3) 1 2 3 Next
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