Description of Kübler-Ross’s Grief Cycle
Kübler-Ross’s grief cycle is most commonly applied to adults as opposed to most theories applied to children. Kübler-Ross introduced her five-stage model of grief in 1969 (de Klerk, 2023). The model involves five phases: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Kübler-Ross’s grief cycle describes a typical psychosocial state experienced by a terminally ill person (de Klerk, 2023).
Application of Kübler-Ross’s Grief Cycle to Mitch from Tuesdays with Morrie
While the main character of Tuesdays with Morrie is a bright example of someone who never gives up and accepts hardships with gratitude, the narrator and author, Mitch, vividly illustrates all five stages. Mitch’s grief cycle starts with denial, when he refuses to accept the news about his favorite professor’s diagnosis, and ends with acceptance, when he recognizes that Morrie’s burial place is a charming spot.
Denial
The first stage in Kübler-Ross’s grief cycle is denial, when a person refuses to accept the tragic news. Denial is a pathologically applicable state since it defends the individual from becoming entirely overwhelmed by grief from the beginning (de Klerk, 2023). Mitch explains that he was shocked when he heard “words from the TV set, ‘Who is Morrie Schwartz?’—and went numb” (Albom, 2002, p. 23).
He did not want to believe that his ever-favorite professor was terminally ill. Denial helps to slow down the emotional pain and alleviates the amount of grief that has to be handled by dividing it into stages (de Klerk, 2023). Thus, Mitch was able to mitigate the level of sadness with the help of this phase.
Anger
During the second stage of the grief cycle, a person becomes angry at the circumstances in which they have found themselves. The anger stage is crucial because it helps individuals connect with reality (de Klerk, 2023). In Mitch’s case, anger was manifested through “the coldest realization” that their time “was running out” (Albom, 2002, p. 59). In Kübler-Ross’s grief cycle, there are two possible ways of expressing anger: withdrawing from the change process or trying to disrupt the change intervention (de Klerk, 2023). Mitch chose the latter, so his anger was expressed by starting to record his professor’s voice so that he would be able to listen to it no matter what happened.
Bargaining
The following two stages of the grief cycle are bargaining and depression. During the bargaining phase, a person tries to settle on an agreement that could postpone the impending doom (de Klerk, 2023). Meanwhile, during depression, one feels overwhelmed with grief to the point that one can withdraw emotionally (de Klerk, 2023). Mitch’s bargaining was expressed by constantly purchasing food and bringing it to Morrie’s home. Buying this “normal food supply” was a life ring for Mitch, who hoped that as long as he brought those products, Morrie would stay alive (Albom, 2002, p. 100).
Depression
However, the miracle did not happen, and upon realizing that Morrie would soon pass away, Mitch transferred into the depression stage. The young man admitted that his whole life had been spent contrary to Morrie’s teaching, who said that “only an open heart” makes people equal (Albom, 2002, p. 127). Hence, Mitch regretted missing out on many years of Morrie’s preaching, which depressed him.
Acceptance
Finally, Mitch experiences acceptance, the last stage of the grief cycle. During this phase, an individual comes to terms with their loss (de Klerk, 2023). On the funeral day, Mitch thinks that “Morrie was right” and that his burial place “was indeed a lovely spot, trees and grass and a sloping” (Albom, 2002, p. 188). This realization sounds soothing and reveals Mitch’s acceptance of what has happened.
Summary
Mitch passed through all the stages of Kübler-Ross’s cycle, from denial to acceptance. This sequence of stages allows the character’s psychological development to be traced through a difficult time. The analysis of Mitch’s development is encouraging and soothing as it reveals that even after the darkest night, a bright new day is possible, no matter how unbearable it initially seems.
References
Albom, M. (2002). Tuesdays with Morrie. Crown.
de Klerk, M. (2023). Back to basics of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’ contribution. In S. K. Dhiman (Ed.), The Routledge companion to leadership and change (pp. 153-164). Routledge.