<P> The Kübler - Ross model is popularly known as the five stages of grief, though more accurately, the model postulates a progression of emotional states experienced by terminally ill patients after diagnosis . The five stages are chronologically: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance . </P> <P> The model was first introduced by Swiss - American psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler - Ross in her 1969 book On Death and Dying, and was inspired by her work with terminally ill patients . Motivated by the lack of instruction in medical schools on the subject of death and dying, Kübler - Ross examined death and those faced with it at the University of Chicago medical school . Kübler - Ross' project evolved into a series of seminars which, along with patient interviews and previous research, became the foundation for her book . Though Kübler - Ross is commonly credited with creating stage models, earlier bereavement theorists and clinicians such as Erich Lindemann, Collin Murray Parkes, and John Bowlby used similar models of stages of phases as early as the 1940s . </P>

What are the five steps of the grieving process