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Stages of Grief

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Healthy Grieving: A Comparative Analysis Author
Grand Canyon University: HLT 310
Summer 19, 2016

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HEALTHY GRIEVING: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
Stages of Grief
Introduction
Here in this essay we examine the stages of grief as defined by the renowned thanatologist
Elizabeth Kübler­Ross. In conjunction with this review of grief we will consider the work of
Nicholas Wollsterstorff in his epic
Lament for a Son, written to express his still lingering grief at the loss of his son Eric, who tragically fell to his death while mountain­climbing at the age of 25.
As we study the process of grief, one must bear in mind that for people suffering grief a range of emotions will come to the forefront­­"disbelief, sadness, anger, guilt, and self­reproach, panic, anxiety, loneliness, listlessness, and apathy, shock, yearning, numbness, depersonalization"
(Bruce 2007) . Also, one must remember that grief is a natural response to losing a loved one.
While looking at grief’s lingering effects, we will also discover how Wolsterstorff managed to find meaning, even joy, after the loss of his son. Stages of the Grieving Process
All people experience grief and mourn at the loss of a loved one­­it is a universal experience. To understand the grieving process better, it helps to focus on the five stages of grief as proposed by
Kübler­Ross in response to one’s “own terminal illness, the loss of a close relationship, or the death of a valued human being” (Axelrod, 2016). Kübler­Ross '
A prominent doctor, Elizabeth Kübler­Ross, took death out of the shadows with her seminal book
On Death and Dying, published in 1969. Here she focused on what she called "the

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HEALTHY GRIEVING: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

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