Five Stages Of Grief

Five Stages of Grief

Michael Kriznar

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Five Stages of Grief

In 1969, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross published her book “On Death and Dying,” in which the Kubler-Ross model was introduced. This paper will be discussing the five stages of grief developed by Kubler-Ross

Grief

Grief is that emotion which is studied the least, and is considered as the most critical emotion experienced by humans. The main source of grief is stress and people experience grief the most in their life. People develop relationships, which increases the affections with other people, while, when someone feels lost than the other individuals also feel lost, and things change unalterably. When someone is in pain, we feel the same, and this is how we show affection to other, and grieve for others but every individual experiences grief in different ways ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"YKXFRxxJ","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Salah et al., 2018)","plainCitation":"(Salah et al., 2018)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":957,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/F0XOCTdk/items/HQ6NGRLQ"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/F0XOCTdk/items/HQ6NGRLQ"],"itemData":{"id":957,"type":"article-journal","title":"Death as Transformation: Examining Grief Under the Perspective of the Kubler-Ross in the Selected Movies","container-title":"International Journal of English Linguistics","page":"448","volume":"9","source":"ResearchGate","abstract":"Death has always been a central human concern. Death is transformative; for those left, therefore, the experience of grief and loss opens another world. The meaning of grief is not simply the “Loss of …” but the “Intense sorrow caused by the loss of a loved one (especially by death)”. Grief is the price we pay for love. The deeper the love, the greater the depth of the grief that follows the loss. Grief is a shape of emotional pain; however, human beings no longer constantly trip these levels in any unique order, nor do they trip each stage. This paper draws upon the conceptual framework of Kubler-Ross five stages of grief to analyze the following movies “UP”, “Baba Dook”, “The Kite Runner”, “Rabbit Hole”, “Summer 1993” and “Three Colors: Blue” content analysis as the method of analysis. Besides, this paper explores the impact of these five stages of grief on different genders through the characters and scenes in the selected movies. This paper is an exploratory and descriptive study grounded in qualitative research design and uses content analysis as the method of analysis of the selected movies. The findings of this study show that death is a transformative phenomenon and grief unlike other emotions is a powerful tool since it raises doubt about how the grieved discovers significance throughout everyday life.","DOI":"10.5539/ijel.v9n1p448","shortTitle":"Death as Transformation","journalAbbreviation":"International Journal of English Linguistics","author":[{"family":"Salah","given":"Saman"},{"family":"Hussain","given":"Sohaila"},{"family":"Ahmed","given":"Ayesha"},{"family":"Azam","given":"Abida"},{"family":"Rafique","given":"Durdana"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2018",1,7]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Salah et al., 2018). Kubler-Ross studied the five stages of grief, which include denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

Stages of Grief

Denial

Denial is the first step, which helps us to survive when we lose someone with whom we were too much attached. This stage occurs when individuals deny realities while experiencing different situations. During this stage, one feels that he is living a meaningless life and sometimes this world becomes overwhelming. This is the stage in which an individual lives in the state of denial and shock, and engagements of individuals make no sense. Being in a state of denial, it helps individuals to cope with situations and provide support to live. After accepting the reality, the individual becomes able to survive and becomes stronger than before.

Anger

After the stage of grief, anger is the next in which an individual, after going through loss and suffering from grief, becomes angry by starting asking questions such as “why not others, why me?” This decreases self-esteem of individuals, and individuals start blaming their lives. This behavior of doubt may extend to all people including friends, family, and loved ones who are not alive. Anger is the stage during which individuals learn to manage things, and they learn to heal with time. However, during this stage, an individual also develops the feeling of jealousy and is projected towards hatred.

Bargaining

This is the stage when individuals start to bargain with God, for example after losing someone; an individual starts a conversation with "please God.” Individuals desire if his/her other family members or loved ones would be saved from pain after experiencing of losing loved ones to whom they were too much attached. During this stage, an individual agrees to do anything that will be instructed to him/her by stronger powers. Individuals feel so desperate that they are willing to do anything to avoid pain and any further loss. Process of bargaining may result in different outcomes and may influence stronger powers with whom individuals are bargaining.

Depression

Depression is considered as a form of grief that is commonly accepted by many people. Individuals suffering from grief are more likely to become depressive. During this stage, levels of grief increase, and take deeper roots leading individuals to feel lost, and make them think that, this grief will last for a lifetime. After suffering from grief, depression is considered as the stage, which occurs unnaturally: a state which can be fixed with time. However, after losing a loved one, living a happy life is considered as unusual.

Acceptance

Sometimes it is misinterpreted that accepting something unusual such as grief and pain means that an individual is satisfied with the experiences. Acceptance is interpreted as the stage in which an individual learns to adjust and resolve situations. Individuals feel like they will not be suffering from grief anymore, and they start uplifting themselves to live a normal life with their friends and they starting making new relations with people.

Conclusion

The five stages of grief depict that people suffer from different sorrows and they cope with the situations differently. The five stages of Grief show how individuals are exposed to grief and how they cope with the situation to accept the realities.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Salah, S., Hussain, S., Ahmed, A., Azam, A., & Rafique, D. (2018). Death as Transformation: Examining Grief Under the Perspective of the Kubler-Ross in the Selected Movies. International Journal of English Linguistics, 9, 448. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v9n1p448