Kübler-Ross and the Re-visioning of Death as Loss: Religious Appropriation and Responses

Abstract

Fifty years ago, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross' On Death and Dying provided a model of dying as stages of coping with impending loss of one’s life. She sought to give dying hospital patients a voice; the result gave a new model for speaking about dying and grieving. This paper examines the model and religious appropriations and crticism of her theme of death as loss.