The Final Stage of Growth
TOUCHSTONE
Elisabeth Kübier-Ross is the author of
On Death and Dying
Questions and Answers on Death and Dying
Death: The Final Stage of Growth
To Live Until We Say Good-Bye
Living with Death and Dying
Working It Through
On Children and Death
AIDS: The Ultimate Challenge
The Wheel of Life
TOUCHSTONE
Rockefeller Center
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
Copyright © 1975 by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
First Touchstone Edition 1986
TOUCHSTONE and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc.
Manufactured in the United States of America
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
The Library of Congress has cataloged a previous edition as follows:
Death: the final stage of growth.
(A Touchstone book)
Reprint. Originally published: Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1975.
1. Death—Psychological aspects—Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Kübler-Ross, Elisabeth.
BF789.D4D44 1986 155.9′37 86-3708
ISBN-13: 978-0-684-83941-7
ISBN-10: 0-684-83941-5
ISBN-13: 978-1-439-12517-5
Prayer for Healers
LORD,
Make me an instrument of your health:
where there is sickness,
let me bring cure;
where there is injury,
aid;
where there is suffering,
ease;
where there is sadness,
comfort;
where there is despair,
hope;
where there is death,
acceptance and peace.
GRANT that I may not:
so much seek to be justified,
as to console;
to be obeyed,
as to understand;
to be honored,
as to love. … .
for it is in giving ourselves
that we heal,
it is in listening
that we comfort,
and in dying
that we are born to eternal life.
Prayer of St. Francis
(modified by Charles C. Wise)
Dedicated to—
Manny, Kenneth, and Barbara, whose love makes this work possible, and in memory of my mother, who died on the very day this manuscript was finished, September 12, 1974.
Thanks to Doug McKell for his untiring assistance in putting this manuscript together, to Rosalie Monteleoni, who keeps my spirits up and my office functioning, and the Rubins, whose support continues to flow when I need it most.
Joe and Laurie Braga have not only been the initiators of this book but have spent innumerable hours to “shape” it and have done so with the love that only true friends can put into a task like this.
