Question

Please respond to the following: Elisabeth Kübler-Ross proposed five psychological stages of dying: denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. These stages do not occur in a specific order, and the stages often overlap. Dying people often have to rework the stages, and some dying persons may never reach the fifth stage of acceptance. Do you think this model applies to other significant losses in life (e.g., loss of a job or divorce)? Why or why not?

Answer 1

The first thing we should understand that death is an exceptional condition because we are born to live. The model of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross describes some common elements behind the loss of life but dying does not depend on the specific model. I think the reason for death depends on multiple factors.

I think this model is helpful to understand the reason for dying as well as other serious losses in life. Let us think about these stages proposed by Kubler and Ross.

• The denial and isolation in the workplace or in the family led a person to feel socially distracted and develop no value for a social relationship later it becomes the cause of divorce and loss of a job.
• Anger, depression, develop social distraction and lack of achievements while good and healthy social relationships demand control over emotions, stress, and frustration.

In my opinion, divorce, loss of a job, family member or other significant losses may be described with the help of this model but not accurately because life loss cannot be compared with other social losses.