Breast cancer and Kubler-Ross grief Cycle

Abstract

Grieving is a process that involves many different emotions, actions, and expressions as a means to make the person come to terms with a disease like cancer. Kubler-Ross grief cycle describes grief in phases as denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. However, the process of grief differs from person to person. The intensity and length of grieving are influenced by emotional, psychological, and social structure of the family or place or community one lives in. Breast cancer is one such common disease that afflicts millions of people. The coping mechanism involved in facing grief is illustrated by two different cases. Case A, a breast cancer patient with healthy family backgrounds discovers a motive and desires to live as a mother to take care of her daughter with a positive influence to fight the disease. Case B, another breast cancer patient has a broken family background which forces her to develop a negative approach to fight the disease. These two cases are taken as examples to study the grief cycle.