ABSTRACT
In her celebrated study of the process of grief, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross defined a series of stages passed through by people who have experienced a traumatic loss: denial; anger; bargaining; depression; acceptance (KublerRoss 1973). The process of grieving may not take the form of a smooth linear transition from one phase to the next, and it may take a longer or a shorter time, as periods of progress appear to be followed by setbacks. Nor should people who have experienced a bereavement or loss feel obliged to follow Kubler-Ross’s trajectory: it is a description rather than a prescription. However, it describes a process of coming to terms with the misfortunes thrown up by life that is a familiar part of the human experience. The tirade from Pamela Scott, a leading promoter of dietary treatments for children with autism, shows how, in relation to their own children, parents who become involved in the biomedical movement seem to get stuck at the stage of anger.
