3
Feb
2009
David Powlison on the Five Stages of Grief
A new episode of Help & Hope has David Powlison critiquing Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. Kübler-Ross developed the five stages of grief in her 1969 book On Death and Dying. Powlison provides his typical refreshing and consistent biblical approach to this dominant model for understanding grief and suffering.
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I really liked this episode. I used On Death and Dying for a grief counseling course in my undergrad. I had some issues with it and wish I had heard this critique back then.
Thanks for pointing this out.
Kubler Ross’s theory is SO outdated and old fashioned in the grief world. there are so many more theories it would be helpful if a critique could be made of them if necessary. I think when Mr Powlinson says about people “being relieved” at a diagnosis, that it is maybe temporary, and not something that continues, esp. if as in the example, it is cancer, and does lead to death. I am a Christian Counsellor and people generally go through stages of grieving, tho not linially (is that a word?) – its more like the stock market….it generally goes up, but you can often only see the progression when you get to some point ahead, and during the journey, there may be dips or crashes.