b. Cultural means of the death process
II. DEATH AS A UNIVERSAL (Kubler Ross)
b. Means and modes of coping with death
b. Means and modes of coping with death
a. Similarities with Kubler Ross system
b. Differences with Kubler Ross system
Since the late 1960s, one of the standard sources for information on the way that humans deal with the process of death has been the book On Death and Dying by Elizabeth Kubler Ross. Kubler Ross' systemization of the death and dying has helped millions understand the processes surrounding a subject that is both uncomfortable and inevitable within the context of societal development. Within this process, in fact, Kubler Ross has sequenced the way that people deal with death: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance. These stages are not necessarily complete, nor are they always internalized in the same order by different people. Nevertheless, Kubler Ross has identified these traits and believes them to be part of a universal mode of culturally accepting the death of a loved one. In the same manner, each of these processes accomplishes a psychological healing effect on the individual experiencing grief.
Since each culture has a different social basis, and with that dissimilar attitudes toward religious or philosophical subjects, it is initially ironic to believe that any cultural similarity might exist on any subject. However, since each society must deal with certain processes birth, marriage, and death to name but a few, it is clear that there are universal attitudes that each different culture has in common. In fact, it quickly becomes clear that in matters that have extraordinary importance to society as a whole, the complex nature of human culture transcends any individual or geographic determiners that may account for differences within other aspects of societal behavior.
In the initial chapters of her book, Kubler Ross immediately acknowledges t...