Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
1926-
Other Works
On Death and Dying
Death: The Final Stage of Growth
On Children and Death
Early Insights Elisabeth Kübler-Ross is one of the great humanitarians of our time. Raised in an upper-middle-class Swiss family, she decided early in life to become a doctor. Her father opposed this idea, however, so she postponed her medical education and took a position as a domestic servant. At the age of 18, she volunteered to help with war relief. While visiting the concentration camp of Majdanek in Poland, she was struck by pictures of butterflies scratched on the prison walls. She realized that doomed children, nearing their deaths in the gas chamber, must have
viewed their spirits as butterflies leaving the cocoons of their bodies. This image of hope amid despair made a deep impression on her.
A Country Doctor Always determined, Kübler-Ross eventually gained her medical degree and worked as a country doctor in Switzerland. After emigrating to New York, she worked in a state mental hospital and achieved remarkable success in helping mentally ill patients who had people view life and death as "a challenge and not a threat." She left the University of Chicago in 1969 and began giving workshops all over the world. Her work has inspired the establishment of hospice programs, which support terminally ill patients and their families.
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