The five stages of grief

• Denial

• Anger

• Bargaining

• Depression

• Acceptance

The five stages of grief, first published by Elsabeth Kubler-Ross in her book "On Death and Dying", has in recent years been dismissed by the experts as doing more harm than good. This is most likely because the frequency and impact of grief wasn't really recognized by the psychological community until around the 1980s and even then it was slow in coming.

Below we have added a quote from The Simpsons, which although is slightly different to the five stages above, we really liked it. We apologise to anyone that finds this distasteful but some people find humour a good aid to help recovery.

Quote from The Simpson's (the deadly blowfish)

After eating a blow fish, that has the deadly nerve toxic, Dr Hibbert advises Homer that he is dying and will go thought 5 stages of grief:

Dr. Hibbert: Now, a little death anxiety is normal. You can expect to go through five stages. The first is denial.
Homer: No way! Because I'm not dying!
Dr. Hibbert: The second is anger.
Homer: Why you little!
Dr. Hibbert: After that comes fear.
Homer: What's after fear? What's after fear?
Dr. Hibbert: Bargaining.
Homer: Doc, you gotta get me out of this! I'll make it worth your while!
Dr. Hibbert: Finally, acceptance.
Homer: Well, we all gotta go sometime.
Dr. Hibbert: Mr. Simpson, your progress astounds me.