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The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: Critical Book Review
Fadiman’s The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down looks that the problems of culture clash and cultural misunderstanding in the Western medical field. Fadiman’s focus is on the case of Lia Lee, an epileptic girl who comes from a Hmong family in Merced, and how her condition was viewed differently between her parents and the doctors treating her at Merced Community Medical Center (MCMC). Lia’s parents believed in traditional Hmong practices associated with holistic medicine while the doctors at MCMC believed in the Western medical practice of allopathy. Throughout the novel, we see how Fadiman aims at placing herself in a neutral position and analyzing Lia’s case unbiasedly through
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Multiple times throughout the novel, the miscommunication between Lia’s doctors and Lia’s parents led to the mistreatment and overall poorer quality of care for her health. During Lia’s first emergency room (ER) visit, Lia’s parents were unable to describe her seizure symptoms which led to her diagnosis of pneumonia and ultimately detained her actual diagnosis of epilepsy and treatment plan (Fadiman, 26). Additionally, during Lia’s other hospital visits communication between the nurses and Lia’s parents was hindered which not only led to the estrangement of Lia’s parents from her treatment but also led to them feeling a lack of being …show more content…
She clearly portrayed the Hmong beliefs and their origins through her detailed explanation of the Hmong customs and history. She also uses keen details to explain the medications and medical procedures over the course of Lia’s treatment. It was evident that Fadiman entered the case with an open mind and avoided cultural/religious misunderstanding. While her explanation of the Hmong culture using the “fish soup” method laid a foundation for which the novel would build upon, I believe that maintaining aroused on the subject was slightly difficult. Fadiman also uses her knowledge of medical education to explain that blame for the culture clash cannot be assigned to the doctors since they were not educated on that matter (Fadiman, 61). Even though Fadiman attempts maintain an unbiased position on the issue, I believe her claim regarding doctor was biased. The author states, “Medicine, as it is taught in the United States does an excellent job of separating students from their emotions. … Dissociation is part of the job. … Neil Ernst avoided Lia Lee after she returned from Fresno with irreplaceable brain damage(he couldn’t bear it) (Fadiman, 275, 276). In the beginning of the novel the author explained how doctors Neil Ernst and Peggy Philp were some of the only people to provide satisfactory treatment for Lia (Fadiman, 42). With this being said, I believe that
Dr. Roger Fife is liked by the Hmong because, in their words, he doesn’t cut. He is not highly regarded by the other doctors for many reasons. I believe Dr. Fife is generally a good doctor I would rate him about a 7 on a scale of 1-10 because he listens to his patients and takes his patients’ culture into consideration, but he does have certain weaknesses that makes him less than desirable to me. I believe he genuinely cares about his patients. He is a doctor that does not force certain medical practices because “it’s their body.” I believe every physician has their strengths and weaknesses. Dr. Fife has good strengths that makes him very well liked in the Hmong community. He builds his Hmong clientele by listening to his patients wants and
I think because of the dream of the doctor the budget allotted to the patient was consumed and the hospital administrators became worried. I also want to assume that educational background was also not tackled, it is important to know that the patient is understanding the teaching well and know the importance of the treatment and possible outcome if not followed. Also, social isolation when the author described Mrs. Benitez not attending church and the only option for her would be her neighbor who barely let them borrow the car to drive for 12 miles. The distance of the health care center is also a factor and the reason why can’t do follow up
In Richard Russo’s Empire Falls, he tells us about the lives of the some of the residents of a dying New England mill town. Miles Roby, a lifetime resident and father that runs the local eatery, the Empire Grill, for Francine Whiting, the matriarch of Empire Falls. They have known each other for a long time. Miles’s mother, Grace Roby had an affair with C.B. Whiting the owner of the textile mill, and Mrs. Whiting’s husband. This set off a chain of events that eventually led to Francine promising to leave Miles the Empire Grill in her will.
How would it feel to flee from post-war Communist forces, only to face an ethnocentric population of people in a new country? In Anne Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, a portrait of a disquieting, often times touching, ethnography (i.e. a book that details particular data of an extended period of time an anthropologist spent living closely with a community of individuals during his or her field work) of Fadiman's experience living in Merced, California, which was home to the largest population of Hmong refugees, such as the Lee family, from Laos who suffered mass confusion when trying to navigate the American health care system. Because the Hmong could not speak sufficient English until the children gained language skills native to the United States, residents of California were not accepting of the Hmong community. Fadiman aims to better understand how knowledge of illness among Hmong and Western medical practitioners differ, which pushes the reader to understand how the complicate medical treatment in the past as well as the present from a perspective of an American observing a Hmong family's struggle with the system. In America, it isn’t uncommon to be judged for your clothing, your house, or the amount of money your family makes, so it is easy to believe that the Hmong people were not easily accepted into American society. As a whole, ethnocentrism, or the tendency to believe that one's culture is superior to another, is one of America's weaknesses and this account proves ethnocentric behavior was prominent even in the 1970-80's when Fadiman was in the process of doing her fieldwork in post-Vietnam War Era California.
The book I read to examine multicultural issues and cultural biases was The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Faldiman. I found it helpful to use Google maps to get a visual of the location Hmong refugees came from in Laos and mentally trace their journey across the Pacific to settle in Merced, CA. There are two main cultures discussed in this book which includes the subordinate Hmong Lee family and the dominant White American doctors who tried to help Lia with her medical or spirit issues depending on which culture you asked. Faldiman stated in the preface, “I have always felt that the action most worth watching is not at the center of things but where the edges meet.” This statement would hold so much relevance because Lia’s treatments could have been less stressful if the two cultures reached a point of intersectionality. This is also congruent with what Tatum mentioned in Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria concerning, “Changes in immigration policy in 1965 dramatically increased Asian immigration, significantly altering the demographic makeup of the Asian Pacific American community.” In order to have a full
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
Share the story of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures.
I believe that when Dr. Cupp returned to her indigenous home she believed that just providing medical service was enough. In doing this she failed to realize he true needs of her people. This caused tension between herself and her patients because she was not providing the type of medical attention they were familiar with. She soon corrected this mistake and was able to truly
b. Esteban Trueba represents the conservative party and all conservative movements. The conservative movement begins with Ibanez just as conservatism emerges with Esteban Trueba. Conservatives seek to preserve things as they are and they oppose modernism and seek a return to” the ways things were.”
Though Lia’s parents and her doctors wanted the best for her, the above barriers were creating a hindrance to her treatment. They both were not understanding each other and the interpreter was also not there, doctors wanted to transfer her to another best hospital because they were not getting with her disease but her parents misunderstood the situation and thought they were shifting her for their own benefit. In expansion to these convictions, Hmong likewise have numerous traditions and folks that are negotiated by those of the American standard and therapeutic groups; for instance, some Hmong customarily perform custom creature sacrifice and in view of extremely particular entombment customs and the alarm of every human's numerous souls potentially getting away from, the accepted Hmong convictions don't consider anybody experiencing obtrusive restorative surgery. The Hmong medicinal framework is dependent upon nature-based hypothesis that lets life stream as it may be, while the western restorative framework is dependent upon the modernized humanism-based medicinal science. So when Lia was dealt with by the American specialist with western pharmaceutical, Lia's guardians don't concur with them....
In conclusion, three things could have solved the cross-cultural problems between the Hmong and the American doctors. The doctors should have had more compassion toward the Hmong people, who have been discriminated and put down for very many years. They should have been more understanding toward the Hmong's belief and worked with and not undermine it. Lastly to compromise in all aspects in a relationship no matter what kind is a two way street, and if one party does not respect the other then the feeling will be reciprocated. You have to come to a middle ground or everything will fall apart like in Lia's case.
All informants and sources are listed according to the chapters in which they contributed. Her major helpers, such as her interpreter, the Lees, the doctors who treated Lia, and a few others, have a special thanks from the author at the beginning of this section. Fadiman consulted a vast array of sources from both perspectives of Lia’s story. She also read nearly all of the available literature about the Hmong at that time, which admittedly was not abundant compared to now. Overall, those she spoke to seemed to be open and willing to talk about what had happened. The doctors freely admitted mistakes they made or may have made, and showed an interest in learning where they went wrong so that they could avoid any future
The two Hmong cultural values that were demonstrated by the Lee family are portrayed by their belief and view about the cause and method of cure for an illness. The Lee family comes from a culture that believes in holistic healing. They have an animalistic view about health and medicine. For instance an epileptic is seen as someone who has been chosen to be a healer. Most Hmong epileptic are shamans, therefore even though the Lee’s wish that their daughter’s illness will be cured, they also have a mixture of pride because “although shamanism is an arduous calling that require years of training with a master in order to learn the ritual techniques and chants, it confers an enormous amount of social status in the community and publicly marks the triv neeh as a person of high moral character since a healing spirit will never choose a no account host” (Fadiman,1997, p.21). It is not surprising that their view about health is reflected mostly in their traditional belief in the causes and the cure of an illness. For i...
In the book The Spirit Catches you and you Fall Down, ethnocentrism can also be seen. Throughout the book the family and the doctors have different ideas of medicine/healing techniques are often disagreed on. It’s important for the doctor to see that biomedicine has its own intentions of saving patient through standard procedures and beliefs. Understanding those terms will shed some light on the culture of the patient, which has their own intentions, beliefs, and rules as well. Breaking down ethnocentrism to find an agreement is a good goal to accomplish in order have successful prognosis and healing. In addition, shedding the ethnocentrism will allow the doctors to see the different cultural beliefs and not judge right away. Although, some cultural remedies may not always work, it’s wrong for people to have the mindset of ethnocentrism without even considering their beliefs first.
...ation could have been improved between doctors and patients in simple ways. Interpreters were used and children went to school and helped translate for family members. These helped communication somewhat, but it wasn’t enough. There may not have been any other way to help, but some people tried to and doctors tried to be patient with the Hmong to understand what they wanted and to make them understand what was going on.