The Spirit Catches You Character Analysis

Micro Level Analysis
Target & Dimensions As aforementioned, Lia Lee’s father, Nao Kao Lee, and his perception of Lia’s primary doctor, Dr. Neil Ernst, will be analyzed using the social constructionist perspective. Specifically, individuals and couples are the targets for analysis. Looking at these interactions through a micro lens includes examining how and why the interactions between Nao Kao and Neil happened. Adding in the social constructionist perspective to the micro level, social workers utilizing this perspective would investigate how Nao Kao constructed his individual perception of reality based on his experiences with Neil. Furthermore, social workers would question the roles played by context and culture in each situation.

According to social constructionist theories, their exchanges shaped both their individual realities and their future interactions; specifically, Nao Kao eventually mistrusted and potentially resented Neil as well as the whole American medical system. This mistrust began developing when Nao Kao’s daughter Lia started seizing at a very early age. Nao Kao spent many nights in the hospital with Lia while doctors, including pediatrician Neil Ernst, treated her, sometimes even restraining her to properly administer her medication. Nao Kao thought the doctors and nurses restraining Lia were sadistic, with his suspicions further intensified when he arrived at the hospital one morning to find Lia physically injured as a result of falling out of her crib (Fadiman, 1997, p. 43). This mark on his daughter was an obvious sign of neglect to Nao Kao, while Neil and his nurses saw it as an accident. Although Nao Kao was not directly interacting with Neil in these first few nights, Nao Kao’s perceptions commenced about the American medical system, which Neil would later come to represent. Soon after Lia’s first few hospitalizations, Dr. Neil Ernst prescribed Lia medication to control her seizures, but Nao Kao refused to provide his daughter with the whole dosage, claiming to Neil that it made her sicker (Fadiman, 1997, p. 50). When noncompliance eventually became an issue of child safety, Nao Kao blamed Neil for Lia’s prolonged stay in foster care, going so far as to threaten suicide if he did not get his daughter back (Fadiman, 1997, pp. 83, 89). This disagreement between Neil and Nao Kao echoed throughout Fadiman’s book and presented one of the strongest indicators of constructed reality built by an individual’s perceptions; Neil viewed Nao Kao’s medical noncompliance as harmful to Lia, but Nao Kao credited Lia’s sickness and distress to Neil’s medical procedures