Death and dying: psychological and cultural perspectives

Death and Dying

This report aims to compare Sigmund Freud's hypothesis on the grieving cycle and Elisabeth Kubler-Ross' stages of dying. All men, women and children on the face of this planet eventually lose a loved one and they will also come to a point where they realize their own demise; yet, grieving and death are still not fully understood. Both Freud and Kubler-Ross made amicable attempts to solve the issues and concerns associated with this obvious dilemma. But, the reality is that each of us will have to come to terms with man's mortality in his or her unique way. Freud and Kubler-Ross only provide a blueprint for us to understand the process that each of us utilize when the time comes. Grief therefore should be considered as a very personal progression of self preservation because everyone also has his own death in the back of his mind during the grieving process. The actual and imagined physical, emotional, social and cognitive reactions and symptoms regarding loss and death are very real to those contending with the fact that although he currently survives, eventually it will be his or her turn to pass over.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross is a psychiatrist and author. Her work On Death and Dying has established her as one of the most respected medical professionals in regard to the topic of grieving and death. Her expertise stems from the fact that throughout her career she has surrounded herself with individuals facing death or considered to be dying. After coming to the United States from Zurich in the late 1950's, she noticed how poorly those in terminal states were treated. She bucked the system by sitting and conversing with terminal patients. "My goal was to break through the layer of professional denial that prohibited patients from airing their inner-most concerns." (Kubler-Ross, 1969)

Kubler-Ross felt that during the very stressful period associated with the dead and dying, the grieving individual's decision-making process is greatly affected by inner emotions. Thus, during the grieving period, specific grief stages have a direct affect on one's decision-making and coping abilities. The stages are: Denial, Anger, Depression, Dialogue and Acceptance. Denial reflects on the grieving individual putting off decisions and anger reflects on the emotions being too strong to really allow for viable decisions to be made. Depression leads to the grieving person often detaching themselves and consciously or subconsciously expecting family members, friends, or professionals to make decisions. Dialogue leads to bargaining so at this stage the grieving individual will begin to explore life alternatives and this leads to eventual acceptance. There is no time limit and many individuals get caught in one stage for the rest of their lives and some individuals make it through all the stages in mere minutes.

There is no doubt that Sigmund Freud and his thoughts and philosophies have affected all modern humans. Freud is referred to as the Father of psychoanalysis and his theories of the unconscious, drives and defenses can be applied to all facets of life -- including death and grieving. Freud saw the cycles of grieving as being very similar to the process of melancholia. "The distinguishing mental features of melancholia are a profoundly painful dejection, abrogation of interest in the outside world, loss of the capacity to love, inhibition of all activity, and a lowering of the self-regarding feelings to a degree that finds utterance in self-reproaches and self-revilings, and culminates in a delusional expectation of punishment." (Freud, 1917) Freud stated that if you were to remove 'the fall in self-esteem' from melancholia, the result would be grief. Freud professed that the process of mourning entailed the person doing the grieving would simply be too preoccupied with the loss that mourning 'leaves nothing over for other purposes or other interests. Freud explained that the grieving individual should be allowed time to overcome this situation which entailed that recovery was possible without any external intervention.

What each of theses prominent psychologists has done is to provide an explanation for the actions of those who have been put into a position of grieving. Both concur that the surviving person is not capable of focusing on anything other than the loss as explained by the comparison to melancholia and the identifying the stages of grief. Both also seem to agree that the situation should in the majority of cases be a temporary state that each individual will eventually reach permitted the proper time and understanding.