Page 6-Thursday, May 29, 1980-The Michigan Daily
Mental health, life
after death discussed
by Dr. Kubler-Ross
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By JOYCE FRIEDEN
There is no place in this country
where people can go to look after their
mental health, according to Dr.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. "There are
spas to look after your physical health,,
and colleges to take care of the
academic aspects, but there are few
places people can go just to let out all
their emotions," she said.
Kubler-Ross, noted authority on
death and dying, made her remarks
yesterday during the second part of a
two-day seminar on death and dying.
Her talk was sponsored by the School of
Nursing's Department of Continuing
Education and was directed at nurses
and nursing students.
KUBLER-ROSS spoke on "Death of a
Child" and mentioned that children are
easier to talk with about death than
adults.
"Children are a thousand times
easier to communicate with... they,
say what they think in beautiful sym-
bolic language," she said..
Kubler-Ross cited crayon drawings
as one method by which children reveal
what they know. She said that a
"hospital artist" (one who draws pic-
tures of body parts for operations) in
England discovered that "when the
children were given crayons and paper,
their drawings told in what part of the
body their illness was, whether they
would go into remission or relapse, and
how long they had to live."
KUBLER-ROSS said that parental
attitudes about death are often tran-
sferred unconsciously to their children.
"You may tell a child that people go to
heaven (and are happy) when they die,
but then when a friend or relative dies,
you carry on like it was a great tragedy.
The child won't believe what you say
because your actions speak louder than
your words," she said. "It is the adult's
discomfort with death and a lack of
motivation on the part of adults to ex-
plain it to children that accounts for so
many children who have lost faith in
God and religion."
Children with dying relatives should
be allowed to visit them in the hospital
no matter how the patient looks,
Kubler-Ross said.
"What the children imagine about
what it's like in the hospital is far worse
than anything they could see in real
life," she said. "As long as you share
the windstorms' (bad times) with love,
your children won't be hurt by them -
it will prepare them to live in the cold,
hard world."
Kubler-Ross also discussed life after
death. "When you die, you become
aware of everything that happens
around you, including a shedding of
your physical body," she said. "Nurses
See KUBLER-ROSS, Page10
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SHARON LUNNE HANLEY of St. Croix, Virgin Islands, holds her diploma
aloft yesterday after receiving it at graduation exercises at the U.S. Naval
Academy. She was one of 55 women who became the first female graduates
of the academy.
First women military
graduates honored
By The Associated Press "AND WHEN they throw their hats
Pentagon brass paid tribute yester- into the air and put that gold bar on
day as more than 200 women became their collar, they will have earned just
the first of their sex to graduate from as smart a salute and just as much
the nation's three- top military respect as any other graduate."
academies and pin on bars as officers in At West Point, 61 women and 809 men
the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine graduated out of a class that started
Corps. four years ago with 119 women and
"They have met the test," said Adm. 1,361 men. One other woman will be
Thomas Hayward, chief of naval commissioned in June, after summer
operations, who was commencement school.
speaker at the U.S. Naval Academy at The 178-year-old academy was
Annapolis, Md. "They have driven rocked in 1976 by a major cheating
themselves in an environment that was scandal and criticized a year later in a
far more stress-filled than that endured Pentagon report for "resistance to
by most of their male counterparts. change. . . and a lack of honor."
Registration protested in
downtown A2 peace vigil
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(ContinuedfromPage3)
the U.S. is becoming "more and more
militaristic, jingoistic, and intolerant of
other countries."
Joseph Volk, president of -the
American Friends Service Committee,
urged listeners to write their legislators
to indicate opposition to the registration
plan. "We've never had registration
very long before we've had a draft, and
we've never had the draft long before
we've had war," Volk said.
"Draft registration is a totally un-
necessary inventory of our 18- and 19-
year-olds," said Tom Schumacher,
spokesman for the Wesley Foundation.
Schumacher stressed that conscription
strikes people at a crucial point in their
lives.
Vietnam War draft counselor Suzan-
ne Day said she decided to speak out
against the draft registration plan
based on her experiences and because
she has two teenage children. "We slip-
ped into Vietnam very quietly," she
cautioned.
Day suggested that a rethinking of
the "Cold War Strategy" could solve
U.S. political problems.
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