The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down By Anne Fadiman

In The Spirit Catches You and You Fall down, Anne Fadiman reflected on ways in which cultural dissonance can have detrimental consequences for those who are caught in the midst of two cultures. In this influential story, the cultural and language barriers between Lia Lee’s family and her doctors caused Lia’s life to be negatively impacted due to improper diagnosis and treatment. The Lees preferred traditional and spiritual treatment that clearly differed from the doctors’ Westernized treatment. Through a constant battle between proper treatment and the Lee parent’s compliance, this caused Lia to live in a persistent vegetative state for the majority of her life.

The language barrier that the Lee’s faced at Merced hospital was discouraging,

As Francesca Farr put it, “our view of reality is only a view, not reality itself” (p. 276) is something neither the Hmong or western culture realized or understood. From the doctor’s view, they thought their medical worldview was the only method in approaching healthcare because of their advanced education and training (p. 76). These doctors assumed their authority was to be respected, their help would be appreciated, and their treatment be utilized. At one point, Neil and Peggy Ernst even talk about how the Lee’s never thanked them for the care of Lia. This truly portrays that the Lee’s didn’t feel that they needed to be thanked because they felt the doctors at MCMC did nothing to help their daughter. I feel that this led to the Ernst’s becoming fed up and “burnt out” on helping them and eventually resulted in lack of care for Lia. This relates to what Brown said in her article about doctors becoming burnt out and how it could hurt patients as well. The doctors rarely attempted to understand or relate to the Hmong culture of medicine and they viewed the Lee’s as stubborn and ignorant. One doctor even went to the extent of saying that the easiest way to treat a Hmong patient was with a bullet to the head, hence the name of chapter 6 “High-velocity transcortical lead therapy.” From the Lee’s perspective, they thought the traditional Hmong worldview was the only way to approach life. Even after coming to America, they resist assimilation by continuing to speak Hmong and honor Hmong traditions and religion. On page 208, Fadiman says “Indeed, as George M. Scott Jr., has observed the Hmong have responded to the hardships of life in the United States ‘by becoming more Hmong, rather than less so.’” When coming to America most cultures begin to become mainstream with ours, whereas it seemed completely opposite for the Hmong. The doctors