Analysis Of The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down By Anne Fadiman

The Spirit catches you and you fall down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman presents a case study of a young Hmong girl, Lia, and her journey with Epilepsy in America. Lia at the age of three months began to seize, the family had diagnosed her with qug dab peg which also means the spirit catches you and you fall down (Fadiman 1997:20). However medical doctors had diagnosed her epilepsy (Fadiman 1997:28). Throughout the book she describes the history of the Hmong people, from their displacement in Laos, to their refugee life and Thailand and finally the journey some of the Hmong took to live in America. The book’s main theme is on the medical response to Lia’s disease, and how this clash between

In the book Fadiman describes two opposing belief systems, the western belief system and the Hmong. On one hand there is the Hmong community, which is seen as being a personality style of medicine, which is usually caused by some sort of supernatural force (Stephens 2014). In the case of the Hmong, they believe it was due to the loss of Lia’s soul, from getting frightened (Fadiman 1997:20). However, the western medical system does not involve looking at the soul, but is more focused on biomedicine or the physical aspects of the disease (Stephens 2014). Their reaction to her disease was much different; they believed that she had a neurological problem which was causing her to seize (Fadiman 1997:28). However the cultural differences did not just end with the diagnosis, it can also been seen in how each party believed Lia should be treated. The Hmong community are described as being very ritualistic, and therefore believes that if there is an illness or disease there should be some kind of ritual performed to either fix the soul or bring it back, for example when Lia is returned home from foster care, her family had sacrificed a cow, for her lost soul (Fadiman 1997:106). In the case of western doctors, they believed that the only thing that would help Lia is if she got medicine, therefore when the Lees refused to give Lia the medication Neil and

The book represents the Hmong and western medicine as being static. Throughout the book the Hmong are depicted as being very hard headed and not willing to adapt. It however also shows mainstream western medicine being just as stubborn to change. Historically the Hmong have faced many challenges, from being used by the American Army as cheap labour and soldiers to becoming refugees but they never gave up their cultural beliefs (Fadiman 1997). A specific example of this can be seen she talks about the tensions the Hmong faced in China, and how the Chinese government tried to change the Hmong community, and make them wear Chinese clothing, cut their hair short etc, however the Hmong responded to this by first fighting and eventually migrating(Fadiman 1997:16). However, the book fails to mention that some Hmong did convert (some not fully) to Christianity during their time in Thailand or when migrating to America. An example of beliefs changing can be seen in the notions of the soul. In traditional beliefs the soul, or souls may wonder from the body due to fright etc. which then causes the illness. An adaptation some Hmong in Kansas City have taken on is that the soul is bounded to the body instead of apart and in place of soul calling rituals, many Christian Hmong pray (Capps 1994: 161). The article also states that the Hmong are also accepting biomedicine into their beliefs about treatment for example