The Wheel of Life : A Memoir of Living and Dying [Hardcover]

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 9, 1997

A noted authority on death and dying offers a memoir of her lifetime of work, from war-ravaged Poland to her seminars at the University of Chicago, and details her final belief that there is life after death. 125,000 first printing."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Psychiatrist and author of On Death and Dying Elisabeth Kübler-Ross has long been considered an expert on the terminally ill, and she is credited with bringing the hospice movement to the United States. Now retired after a series of strokes, and, at 70, facing her own death, she has written The Wheel of Life: A Memoir of Living and Dying, a highly personal memoir. Besides telling her unusual life's story, this book is also a startling treatise on death. Recounting her research with the dying and with those who claim to have "returned" after dying, Dr. Kübler-Ross also writes eloquently about her belief in the afterlife.

From Library Journal

Kubler-Ross's landmark On Death and Dying (LJ 7/69) influenced much of today's work with the terminally ill. Now in her 70s and facing her own death, the renowned psychiatrist recounts here the story of a life spent not only endeavoring to understand dying but also "explaining that death does not exist." Against her father's wishes, the Swiss-born author went to medical school and studied psychiatry in New York after marrying an American physician. Drawn to end-of-life counseling, Kubler-Ross developed her techniques into professional workshops, the basis for her earliest and most influential books. Falling in with a channeler of dubious background, Kubler-Ross claims to have undergone out-of-body experiences, meetings with spirit guides, and visions of fairies. Unfortunately, this book is a puzzling combination of hastily sketched reminiscence and the worst of New Age ramblings, providing little insight into the author's character. A disappointment.
-?Karen McNally Bensing, Benjamin Rose Inst. Lib., Cleveland
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 286 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1st edition (June 9, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684193612
• ISBN-13: 978-0684193618
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #575,817 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Typical Kubler-Ross courage is between every line., September 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Wheel of Life: A Memoir of Living and Dying (Paperback)

I first saw and heard Elisabeth Kubler-Ross on public tv in the mid 70's; I was fascinated with her and with her work from that first introduction. This writing of her life was a must read for me personally and I was engrossed from cover to cover. Though I was a little surprised to read about her involvement with channelers (something I personally can't accept), her writing about it as part of her own life was not a turnoff to me. She has a very good point, as she says many times in her book, that we should be open to all things and not rule out happenings as being within the realm of possibility. When EKR speaks or writes about death and dying the listener/reader does not feel great sadness. She was granted the gift of passing on to others an understanding of death as a natural and very important part of living, to be dealt with with dignity and compassion. With this book, as with everything I've ever read or heard by her, EKR has helped me to understand just a little more about how to live life to the fullest. This world is better by far for having been influenced by her wisdom.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Full Life And A Great Read, December 7, 2001

By 

Ian Lawrence Daoust (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wheel of Life: A Memoir of Living and Dying (Paperback)

This is a wonderful book. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross has done the world a tremendous service by helping to humanize death and the process of dying, and in this autobiography she tells of all the surprises and inevitabilities that marked her own growth, and the growth of her work. Somewhere along the line, however, a few years back, Kubler-Ross adopted the role of an amateur prophet, and some of her later works deliver a confusing, inconsistent, and often strident set of contradictory neo-Jungian messages about matters spiritual. Those who think she lost her marbles will find plenty of evidence here as elsewhere to support their views. But this book is actually a whole lot more accessible, and far less preachy, than some of her other books have been. I think one would be unwise to ignore the complications entailed by Kubler-Ross's many spiritual injunctions, but one would be uncharitable to also dismiss the tremendous good that has come out of her life's work. I don't find in this book the accepting, non-ideological compassion of Stephen Levine, nor the unassuming experimental spirit of Raymond Moody, but Kubler-Ross remains incomparable as the initiating spokesperson for a humane death. Her tale is extraordinary, and this book is an exceptional, welcome, and one-of-a-kind read.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An honest Memoir, March 11, 2006

By 

Mycroft (Rio Linda, Ca United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Wheel of Life: A Memoir of Living and Dying (Paperback)

Those who grouse & are dismayed at the second half of the book perhaps have not traveled far enough on their own spiritual journeys yet to understand. I found the book, like all her works, thoughtful, insightful & honest. Having worked in hospice nearly 30 yrs, in part due to Dr. Kubler-Ross, I can honestly say that in hospice you see many things that are beyond the scope of everyday life. The more I see of human Spirituality in hospice paitents & their families the less judgmental I tend to be.