Essay about Grief from a Cross-Cultural Perspective

Kubler-Ross, E and Kessler, D (2005). On Grief and Grieving, London: Simon & Schuster. p7-28.

According to Corr, Corr, and Bordere (2013), death is a term that is used to indicate one’s end of life, while dying is the process that one undergoes before he or she loses his or her life. The author talks the reader the numerous aspects of death and dying, as well as bereavement. This book incorporates classical and modern material, contemporary task-based methods for a person or family coping with death. The article is divided into sub-sections including introduction chapters and conclusion chapters, which revolve around the subject of death and how people, including relatives of the deceased, survive. There are four chapters in this book which explain how children, teenagers, young, and middle-aged adults cope with death. From this point of view, it is clear that this book discusses various aspects of religious and cultural perspective that affects one’s understanding as well as the practices associated with death.

The book, Lament For a Son, written by Nicholas Wolterstorff talks about his pain and grief after losing his 25-year-old son (Joy, 2009). His son died while on a mountain-climbing expedition. Dr. Wolterstorff has several books published during his career as a philosophical theology professor in Yale Divinity. However, he wrote Lament for a Son with a different journal style since it is a personal thing for him. The book is similar to a journal as he narrates the events that happened before and after his son’s death. The emotions expressed in the book are common among people who lose close relatives. What matters is how a person handles the issue. Kubler-Ross invented the five stages of grief; denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptancethat explain the escalation of grief when stricken by bad news (Axelrod, 2004). The paper looks into the book and its relation to the five stages of grief.

Grief is the natural reaction to a major loss such as the demise of a loved one. The grief has many components such as physical, emotional, social, mental, and spiritual. A person can feel grief during a serious, long-term illness or with an incurable disease. The symptoms can be a great level of depression, gloominess, guilt, and hopelessness. The common grief responses feelings include numbness, shock, anger, anxiety, loneliness, fatigue, and yearning. The other common grief responses to physical feelings such as not being able to sleep, tightness in

There is no correct way to mourn or grieve. Grieving and bereavement are usually learned through cultural teachings (grief.com). In many cases, people tend to follow cultural and faith traditions associated with death and dying and how to mourn the person who has passed away. However, other people may choose to their own way of remembering the loved one, but cultural and religious influence may guides them through the process (grief.com).

Have people only been able to progress through the stages of grief since 1969 when Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross put a name to the model of processing grief or have people been doing it since the beginning of time? As this paper progresses I will introduce you to a Bible story of a man who was made to suffer incredible losses in his life and how he progressed through what we know today as The 5 Stages of Grief.

In Islam, Muslims believe you submit your will to Allah alone and no one else. They believe that if you believe and trust in him that he will take care of you no matter what. This limits them from experiencing denial. They are taught to remove themselves from hate and anger and rely on the fact that Allah, The Creator has bestowed upon them special privileges. They believe their limitations as human and don’t worry the stresses ahead of them and place their rest in Allah’s wisdom reducing the need for bargaining stage of grief. Even though they may

Death and dying is a natural and unavoidable process that all living creatures will experience at some point in life, whether it is one’s own person death or the death of a close friend or family member. Along with the experience of death comes the process of grieving which is the dealing and coping with the loss of the loved one. Any living thing can grieve and relate to a loss, even children (Shortle, Young, & Williams, 1993). “Childhood grief and mourning of family and friends may have immediate and long-lasting consequences including depression, anxiety, social withdrawal, behavioral disturbances, and school underachievement” (Kaufman & Kaufman, 2006, p. 61). American children today grow up in cultures that attempt to avoid grief and

The fourth stage is depression, the stage where one will experience feelings of emptiness and hopelessness. Some people worry that their feelings of despair will last forever. Yet this stage is

The central theme of conflict is dissected by various poets using numerous literary techniques. Particularly, physical, gender, social, and existential conflict is explored using literary technique by the poets.

J. William Worden’s adaptation of early grief theories focussed on the role of therapists and counsellors in caring for grieving individuals. He described the grieving process in terms of four tasks to complete rather than four phases to progress through. The first task he labeled “Accepting the Reality of the Loss” in which the individual attempts to accept their loss both intellectually and emotionally. The second task, “Working Through the Pain of Grief” involves working through the intense emotions often associated with grief, such as anger, sadness, and guilt. The third task, “Adjusting to an Environment in Which the Deceased is Missing,” comprises a series of adjustments, which Worden defines as external, internal, and spiritual adjustments.

Black Americans can have different emotions from crying to being silent. People usually gather in large gatherings to pay respect. Black Americans have a belief that death is God’s will and the deceased is in God’s hand and will be reunited

Loss affects people in various ways, but especially when it is the loss of someone they are in close relations to, whether it is a loved one, relative or good friend. Going through the physical, mental, emotional and even spiritual impacts that come with the events of a death can really influence the life of the person dealing with the loss. Understanding how people grieve after experience a traumatic event such as death and dying was the main influence for Elizabeth Kübler-Ross’ study which developed into the model we are familiar with now: Kübler-Ross 5 Stages of Grief (Sotelo, Livingood, Sanden, & Webb, 2015). Death, dying and grief are things that every person will face one way or another, and how people react and live on

On Death and Dying By Elisabeth Kubler-Ross For my book review, I read On Death and Dying, by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. Dr. Kubler-Ross was the first person in her field to discuss the topic of death. Before 1969, death was considered a taboo. On Death and Dying is one of the most important psychological studies of the late twentieth century. The work grew out of her famous interdisciplinary seminar on death, life, and transition. In this paper, I give a comprehensive book review as well as integrate topics learned in class with Dr. Kubler-Ross' work. Like Piaget's look at developmental stages in children, there are also stages a person experiences on the journey toward death. These five stages are denial/isolation, anger, bargaining,

In this essay I will outline the main theoretical models relating to loss and grief.