Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down Book Report

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Recommended: Hmong culture illness and belief

The book, Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, is a true story narrative on the life of Lia Lee. Lia Lee was a child who was born in the 1980s in Merced, California. She was a Hmong child who was epileptic. Epilepsy is a brain disorder in which a person has repeated seizures (convulsions) over time. Seizures are episodes of disturbed brain activity that cause changes in attention or behavior. Lia suffered from severe grand mal seizures since the age of three months. When the first seizure occurred, her parents admitted her into the hospital, only to get misdirected information from a resident. Her parents could not comprehend what they were being told due to their language barrier. Overtime, the seizure kept on recurring and she was readmitted …show more content…

It would have been really hard for Lia’s parents to over look their culture. Hmong culture allowed them to belief in seeking human souls through a shaman. Shamans were used to help with the “pulling” out of the spirit. For example, epilepsy was referred to as the spirit that caught her… and the Shaman was here to help the spirit escape and allow her to fall down (be relieved of her issues). The Shaman would try and communicate with the certain internal spirit. He performed rituals to “egg it on.” In the Hmong religion everything was nature-based. On the other hand, Western medicine revolves around science. Doctors look and are taught to look at science as the “the truth that could be proven.” Westerners usually confine themselves to medications and surgery during sickness. These are two extremely opposite point of views on how a patient should or can be healed. Western Doctors would treat epilepsy by drug therapy. They would prescribe the patient with the appropriate dosages of anti-convulsant drugs. Another option could be surgery but most patients do not require this procedure. The surgery is performed to treat partial activity, which involves only treating certain areas of the brain. One could see how spiritual culture and science could contradict in this

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