Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

About the author

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926–2004), a Swiss-American psychiatrist born in Zurich, transformed how medicine and society understand mortality. Her 1969 landmark work On Death and Dying introduced the five stages of grief — the Kübler-Ross model — that became foundational across medicine, psychology, and pastoral care. By 1982 she had taught 125,000 students in death and dying courses worldwide.

Time magazine named her one of the 100 most important thinkers of the 20th century, the New York Public Library ranked her book among its Books of the Century, and she received over 100 awards, including twenty honorary degrees.