OurColony.net

On Death and Dying

Customer Rating:
Having lost two family members within a short time of each other, this book was very helpful to me when dealing with so many emotions at once. I already knew of Kubler-Ross' five stages of grief, however there was much to be learned here as the dying were the teachers.

An Important Book

Customer Rating:
I highly recommend this book. My father died of terminal cancer. Two days after the funeral, I saw my dad at the foot of my bed. When I saw him a second time I thought I had lost my mind. Not only did the book help me to heal but it assured me that it was not my imagination those nights I saw him. There is something else beyond this life waiting for us. Skeptics will always find ways to dispute this fact but I've learned to brush those people off. When their time comes, they will see for themselves.

An extremely valuable resource

Customer Rating:
Kubler-Ross does an outstanding job of synthesizing her years of observation and experience into a succinct, readable volume. She tackles the difficult issues of death and loss with candor and sensitivity. This book provides brilliant insights into the nature and purpose of mourning, how to face one's mortality, how to let the certainty of death enhance one's life, how to deal with the death of a loved one and minister to people in grief. Her "five stages" are quintessential and have helped countless people deal with death. This book is a sobering and enlightening journey. Highly recommended.

The Queen of Death

Customer Rating:
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross is undoubtedly the world's foremost expert on the subject of death and dying. I learned about her stages of grief as an undergraduate majoring in psychology some 20 years ago, and later was re-acquainted with her ideas when I did a ten-year stint working in nursing. Now I am a teacher of psychology and history, and I finally came around to reading her most important book, and perhaps the most important and revolutionary book ever written on the subject of death.

Kubler-Ross's ideas regarding the grieving process are quite profound. As I read her book, I remembered many times while caring for the dying, that a staff or family interaction could have been better understood if the people involved had taken the time to read this book. Knowing the stages are not nearly as effective as reading this book and getting to know Kubler-Ross's mind and heart which she shares with you in the pages of this book. Moreover, the examples she brings forth are wonderful illustrations into getting to know the more subtle clues that give insight to the subject.

I'll provide an example: while in nursing, I cared for a man who was near death. It wasn't until the daughter told her father "It's OK to let go" that the man was able to reach a stage of acceptance. He died the next day. What I didn't understand until I read Kubler-Ross's book is that it wasn't the father who was in denial; it was the rather the daughter. Once the father knew that the daughter was ready to part with her dear father; he was able to rest in peace.

This is a powerful book. I wish I had read it while I worked in nursing. I strongly advise anybody who works around death and dying to read this book.

I was Wrong!

Customer Rating:
We studied Ms. Kubler-Ross's five stages of grief in medical school, but somehow I never got around to reading her orignal work. I presumed that it would be the same dry material that required the learned professors of academia to digest and regurgitate for the masses of medical students crying out for knowledge.

I was wrong.

The work is intimately accessible by everyone as a powerful reflection on death and dying that encourages each of us to address our own mortality and encourages us to treat those experiencing death and dying with empathy, dignity and respect.