Although often used interchangeably, disease and illness differ fundamentally in their meanings and implications. Disease is the commonly thought of concept in which a person suffers due to a physiological or psychological ailment, while illness refers to a culmination of physical, emotional and social suffering of a person. Disease is perceived as the phenomena that affects an organism, while illness affects not only the patient but also their loved ones and community. This distinction is vividly apparent in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, in which Anne Fadiman relays the approaches to a Hmong child named Lia’s epilepsy by her family and her doctors as well as the tumultuous interaction between these caregivers. It is interesting to understand how Hmong culture and a doctor’s …show more content…
The doctors diagnose Lia to have epilepsy caused by the misfiring of neurons in the brain. In contrast, Lia’s parents blame the banging of a door loudly or falling off a swing to have caused the soul to have left the body and possibly be captured by a malicious spirit called a daab. However, it is intriguing that the physicians determine the prognosis of epilepsy to disadvantageous to the development of Lia, while her Hmong parents see this as a call to become a txiv neeb, a Hmong healer. Nonetheless, the most significant contrast is illustrated in the different treatments prescribed by the doctors, who constantly tried to adjust medication to control the seizures and the parents, who believed a combination of some medicine, with the sacrifice of an animal and the healing ceremony by a txiv neeb was what was necessary to improve Lia’s health. Evidently such differences in opinion, aided by difficulties in communication due to a language barrier, led to conflicts between Lia’s physicians and parents that ultimately compromised her level of
Lia’s parents, Nao Kao and Foua had the believe that the loud sound made by the door led to the fleeing of her soul. The diagnosis they made was qaug dab peg to her complication, “the spirit catches you and you fall down”. In that state of concern for the safety of their daughter, Nao Kao and Foua had a believe that her sudden illness had a special transformation on her, since several people who suffer from epilepsy were appointed to be ‘shamans’ or ‘tvix neebs’ at the Merced Community Medical Center (MCMC) is where they sought for treatment, though they as well used ancient methods of healing and used a tvix neeb as they tried their best to have her soul back. Due to their culture, they believed in a little neeb and a little medicine, and they were astonished that a lot of
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
“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.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a biographical work on a Hmong family living in California during the early 80’s. While the book is a true accounting of the Lee’s family attempt to secure quality healthcare for their epileptic daughter while traversing the American medical system and the Department of Children Services. The author, Anne Fadiman, takes the reader on a painstaking but necessary journey of Hmong history and culture and how they came to reside in Merced, California. As you learn more about the history of the Hmong people, you come to admire them as a strong and resilient people that have, as a people, overcome many challenges with respect to being conquered, nomadic and always having to start over.
Touching Spirit Bear, by Ben Mikealson, teaches you that Justice should heal not punish. Cole Mathews is a troubled kid who beats up a kid named Peter Driscal. He gets in trouble and gets an opportunity to go to Circle Justice. Cole is banished to a remote Alaskan island where he gets mauled by a bear. This helps Cole realize that he has been taking the wrong path of life.
After reading “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” by Anne Fadiman, is an interesting book because it talks about the Hmong culture and their believes in medicine. A lot of cultures have their own way with handling medical issues, whether it is with some sort of herbs or whatever that culture uses to help the sick. In the book it’s about a little girl that suffers from having seizures and how the family is trying to use their cultural believes but also uses Western medicine to stop the seizures. It’s really hard for different cultures to assimilate to the American way because they do not fully understand what they’re trying to do which is helping their daughter. They want the help of the doctors but not too much because they still have
In south sudan a civil war broke out that shut down refugee camps killed thousands and one of them killed by being tied to a tree and shot. The main character in the long walk to water by Linda Sue Park is a young boy named salva. Salva is a young boy that gets separated from his family and is picked at random to go start a life in the U.S. in his journey for safety he crosses through lion country, fast rivers, and the Akobo desert all with only the support of his uncle. Salva manages to overcome many dangerous animals, dangerous territories, and the lose of many loved ones through his journey to safety.
People in Southern Sudan have dirty water, wild animals, the many wars and a lot more hardships they need to face. In the book “A long walk to water” by: Linda Sue Park, is a book that takes place in Southern Sudan and features all the hardships Salva and Nya had to face while living there such as wild animals, wars, fights through tribes, lack of water and food. Hardships Salva faced in Southern Sudan are lack of water/ food, the wild animals, and the fighting/ war. One of the hardships Salva had to face in Southern Sudan is lack of water and food. In chapters 3-4 Salva had gotten water from a woman older than Salva’s mother that he had met after he was left alone, the woman gave Salva a gourd of water and a bag of raw peanuts.
Have you ever thought about how difficult it might be to go into a different country knowing absolutely nothing, not even language, and something horrific happened to you or anyone in your family? Don’t you think you would feel so powerless, so helpless, so clueless? This happens commonly and it has never had any attention brought to it, at least not until 1998. Anne Fadiman wrote a book entitled, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. This demonstrated a collision of two complete opposite cultures, but they both have the same goal to help the child get better.
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
Book Review: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Tim Merlino Drexel University November 2017 The patient-doctor relationship recognizes transference affects as a bi-directional relationship which affects the way a health care provider treats a patient and the way the patient responds to treatment (Zinn, 1990). Fadiman’s book examines different problems in the culture of American medicine by highlighting a tragedy centered around a Hmong immigrant family and their sick child, Lia, in California (Fadiman, 2012). The story also highlights some important lessons to be learned by the American health care system to avoid future incidents like described by Fadiman and to ultimately apply cultural competency in public health (Fadiman, 2012).
Family and group solidarity are important to the Hmong, yet they were forced to split apart during their journey to America. The Hmong also partook in ceremonies, dances, and sacrifices that were important to them and their religion, however, the doctors and other people were wary of these practices and didn’t condone them, especially when it came to patients such as Lia Lee. Lee’s doctors were constantly giving her shots, medicine, and feeding her through tubes. Her parents didn’t approve of this at all and thought that the medicines they were giving her was what was killing her.
Within the Hmong culture there is great emphasis on symmetry, balance, and complementary sections in bodies, society, and cosmos. Additionally, the soul must be kept in balance to maintain good health; sadly, the soul of Lia was not kept in good health which lead to severe, poorly-treated epilepsy. The medical mistakes and lack of precise communication ultimately lead to an untimely death of Lia; however, between both parties dealing with Lia’s epilepsy, the severity of her illness could have been prevented if both parties took Eliade’s perspective on sacred space into account during treatment. Sacred space, in terms of Eliade’s perspective, is one of the most critical, cherished topics that defines his paradigmatic model for religion. The
The different ways one can look at Paja’s illness is by acknowledging the Hmong culture and by looking at the perspective of the biomedical world.
Over the progression of the book the view points and relationships between the Lees and the doctors develops slightly. The medical staff was not prepared with a translator or a cultural understanding of the Hmong and how their beliefs would not match up with their medical practices. “Not only do the Hmong fail resoundingly to improve the payer mix- more than eighty percent are on Medi-Cal- but they have proved even more costly than other indigent patients, because they generally require more time and attention, and because there are so many of them that MCMC has to hire bilingual staff members to mediate between patients and providers” (Fadiman 25). This theme in the story was immensely eye opening for all of the cultural gaps that exist throughout the United States. The solution to this problem is for both sides standing on opposite sides of the gap to take the time to bridge the gap together.