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Summary Of Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down By Anne Fadiman

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Anne Fadiman’s professional background is that of the Hmong lifestyle with its cultures against the entire American culture. In his background, there is miscommunication resulting from the refusal of the give medical dosages and other medicines due to the misunderstandings and mistrust. According to Barnsteiner , (p.71), there is also the inability of the US doctors to treat those people deeply rooted in the Hmong culture and they are also unable to learn that culture in the most helpful. Hmong is a refugee family in the US and that is where Ann Fadiman comes from. They come from provinces such as Laos and Sainyabuli which have tried to interact with the healthcare system in California and Merced. The interaction with the healthcare system …show more content…

Ethnographic research is usually the study of people in their real environment and world where they interact with each other and not in artificial laboratories. Ethnographic research is meant gather information on how people live and what they believe in. The book Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down exemplifies strongly the ethnographic research as it tries to analyze the culture of the Hmong and their relation with the rest of the US people who do not live in that refugee camp. First, the Hmong people are those people who strongly believe in their culture. Laws and Chilton, (p.185) says that they do not interact with the other cultures freely in matters dealing with their health. They only believes in their natural healing and not going for medical services from other doctors as they has mistrust and misunderstandings with …show more content…

First, she could have made herself fit into the Hmong culture and be part of them then look like perceiving the American doctors medical healing to be a behavioral side effect and mistrust that could not heal their daughter (Westby, p.132). Then she could have went ahead and finding all the relevant information about her culture and why they are so spiritual and naïve of going for medical treatment for her sister Lia Lee. Secondly, she could have gone into the American hospitals and tried to find out why they believe in medicine much and not spiritual healing and thus she could have gotten enough information which could have made her a better anthropologist. The methods she majorly used to gather her data as sources for writing her book were reading of the medical journals thus medical anthropology and listening to several lectures that build her

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In her book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman describes the story of the Lee family and the conflicting views that arose between Western and Eastern beliefs on providing Lia medical aid. When Laos fell to the communists, the Lees were among the thousands of Hmong who fled the country. They arrived in the U.S. with their seven children and settled in the town Merced. When the Lee’s fourteenth child, Lia, was three months, her older sister slammed the front door of the apartment and Lia fainted. Her parents Nao Kao and Foua Lee believed that the noise frightened Lia’s soul to flee from her body and became lost which they associated with qaug dab peg: “the spirit catches you and you fall down”.

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“The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” by Anna Fadiman tells the story of Lia Lee, a Hmong child with epilepsy, whose life could have been different if only her family was caught up in western medicine. This book reveals the tragic struggles between a doctor and patient because of lack of communication. When Lia was around three months old, her older sister Yer accidentally slammed a door and Lia had suddenly fallen into the floor. This is the first recorded time that Lia was experiencing an epileptic shock.

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The author of this book is called Anne Fadiman. It is based on a story of a Hmong child known as Lia Lee who suffered from epilepsy. The demise of this condition shows the harm that can be contributed by absence of cross-cultural communication especially in the area of medicine. At the age of three months, the elder sister to Lia known as Yer banged a door which caused Lia to have the first seizure.

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In Anne Fadiman’s, A Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, there’s a conflicting battle going on between cultures. While it might never be specifically stated, Anne Fadiman attempts to convey a neutral understanding to her readers of the Hmong beliefs and culture alongside of the culture of biomedicine western society is mostly familiar with. While the Hmong beliefs and practices in medicine are taboo to western society, readers gradually see that Hmong medicine is just as equal or more powerful than biomedicine that we’re so familiar with. It’s an important concept to understand in this book is that the doctors are there to treat Lia’s disease, not precisely concerned with Lia as a person. Hmong medicine seems to be more related to in helping

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One of the recurring themes of Anne Fadiman’s novel The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is the cultural unawareness that is present, not only the American perspective, but the Hmong perspective as well. This is evident in the recountment of a Hmong American that returns to visit Ban Vinai, a refugee camp in Thailand, after establishing herself in the United States. Most of the book is written with a focus on the Western doctors lacking understanding of Hmong language, customs and culture which in turn made it difficult for them to treat patients such as Lia. They struggled to explain procedures, while practical to them, appeared harmful and life-threating to the Hmong.

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Task: Name: Course Name: Course Code: Lecturer: Date:   The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a book written by Anne Fadiman about a Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of the two cultures. It was first published in 1997. The author writes about Lia, a Hmong girl, who suffered from epilepsy that was recognised as qaug dab peg meaning the spirit catches you and you fall down in Hmong.

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Cultural insensitivity is prevalent throughout the Hmong’s journey with the American health care system. Between 8 months and 4.5 years Lia was in the hospital seventeen times and made more the one hundred visits to ER and paediatric clinic. The health care system failed to attempt to understand the Hmong language and culture, which lead to the Hmong adapting their cultural traditions and familiarities to please

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Roger Fife wasn't considered as the most intelligent by the Merced Community Medical Center nor was he admired by his colleagues, one even mentioned him as a little thick. However, he was widely appreciated by the Hmong surpassing all other practices with a seventy percent clientele. The reason Dr. Fife explained was, “Maybe I talk slower than other doctors” (76). The Hmong agreed claiming that he “didn't cut,” or that he avoided Caesarean section in delivering babies. Fife also allowed mothers to take home their babies’ placentas something not a lot of doctors did due to uncertainty.

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Another critical element is the difference of the two culture in addressing illness. The Hmongs have a Shaman who comes in their home, spends time with the family and the patient. Shamans treat their patient’s spirit as well as the body and can make an immediate diagnosis. The American medical system very different in so many aspects that Fouya and Nao Lee is having a difficult time accepting

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Makenzie Griffith EDSE 460 Denise Hitchcock 1 March 2018 Midterm: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down It is a story about a family who shows so much loyalty to their traditions and cultures, but it clashes with the strict American “norm” and creates conflict for their most prized possession, their daughter. Young Lia’s health is at risk when the doctors are trying to treat her epilepsy, but the culture barrier between them and her parents put her at risk. Lia’s parents, Nao Kao and Foua Lee believe that their ancient traditions and healing is what Lia needs in order to get better, but Lia’s doctors prescribe her with many prescriptions to help with the seizures and her parent’s inability to read or speak English to communicate

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Throughout the story, there were endless occurrences where the Hmong’s values clashed with the Americans. To start, the Lee’s thought that if a dab gave Lia her illness their family would be able to treat Lia to get her speaking again. But, the Lee’s thought that since Lia got sick in America that they have “…done this to her, and our medicine cannot fix that” (p. 258). Again, the Hmong value their ethnic medicine due to the ancestor’s progressive, trusted therapy techniques, and therefore utilized their treatments without hesitation.

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According to Purnell (2014) “Hmong children often have not developed a vocabulary that can fully interpret medical terms” (pg. 238) and should be

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In a healthcare setting you will see different cultures that will come and go. It is very important to know how to deal with each culture so that you can help them while still making sure they are comfortable. Native Americans have many different characteristics because of the different tribes from all over the world. Healthcare providers should be familiar with them so they know how to distinguish them if needed. While knowing their characteristics they should also know how to interact with Native Americans as well since their culture is a lot different than ours, we want to make sure that we don’t disrespect them.

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The author was trying to show how the difference between two cultures can influence in health care. The author showed how the difference between illness and disease also affects the forms of treatment. It is important to recognize the patient’s cultural beliefs because this may help us to recognize how effective the given treatment can be and in what ways we can enhance the treatment without sacrificing the patient’s cultural beliefs. The author also showed how both the parents and the doctors care about Lia but what they thought was best for Lia varied. The doctors thought that the parents were harming the treatment by not being compliant and the parents thought that the doctors were hurting Lia by giving her so much medicine.

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Over the past four months, this course has been one of the most eye-opening experiences I have had during my first year of college. Although I have always realized the importance of being culturally competent in daily life, specifically healthcare, I was unaware of the many ways that cultural competence can be obtained. This class gave me the opportunity to view situations from a different perspective, especially through the weekly discussion boards and peer responses. Learning from classmate can teach more valuable lessons than listening to boring lectures or reading hundreds of pages in a textbook because it is easier to relate to experience rather than hypothetical situations. For example, one of the discussion boards asked us to detail

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