Five Stages of Grief Mapped to Five(Eight) Phase Theory

(Copyright © 2002 C. J. Lofting)

Psychologist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross identified five stages that a person goes through in dealing with a death (and there is the suggestion that this is not just a response to a physical process but also to a mental process and as such the ending of a relationship). We can identify these stages with the concept of Five Phase Theory, a concept stemming from Ancient China and dealing with dynamics of relationships..

I have listed Kubler-Ross' stages and mapped them to Plutchik's list of basic emotions and the Five Phase relationships [] and the associated trigrams of the I Ching as well as the generic IDM categories.

DENIAL - the 'death' did not happen.

Rejection - WATER [Water] (BOUND)

BARGAIN - Lets find a way to solve this problem, restore the past.

Surprise/Anticipation - THUNDER/WIND [Wood] (BIND)

ANGER - anger.

Anger/Joy(Sex) - HEAVEN/LAKE [Metal] (BOND/BLEND)

DESPAIR/DEPRESSION - sadness etc.

Fear/Sadness - EARTH/MOUNTAIN [Earth] (BOND/BLEND)

ACCEPTANCE - incorporate the event into one's world image and move on.

Acceptance - FIRE [Fire] (BOUND)