The spirit catches you and you fall down chapter summary. (PDF) Anne Fadiman The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Farrar, Straus and Giroux (1998) 2022-10-29
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The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a book written by Anne Fadiman about the cultural collision between a Hmong family and the American healthcare system. The book follows the story of Lia Lee, a young Hmong girl who suffers from epilepsy, and her family's struggles to get her the medical treatment she needs while also navigating the cultural differences between their traditional Hmong beliefs and the Western medical practices of the doctors treating Lia.
At the start of the book, Lia is a healthy baby, but soon after she is born, she begins to have seizures. Her parents, Foua and Nao Kao, are initially confused and worried about her condition, but they turn to their traditional Hmong beliefs for guidance and treatment. They seek the help of a Hmong shaman, who performs a series of rituals and sacrifices in an attempt to cure Lia's seizures. However, Lia's condition does not improve, and she is eventually diagnosed with epilepsy by Western doctors.
Despite the efforts of Lia's doctors, the Lees are skeptical of Western medicine and prefer to rely on their traditional Hmong healing practices. This leads to a series of misunderstandings and conflicts between the Lees and the medical professionals treating Lia. For example, the Lees believe that Lia's seizures are caused by a "soul loss," and they try to prevent her from being given medication, which they believe will further harm her soul. In contrast, the doctors see Lia's refusal to take her medication as a threat to her health and well-being, and they try to force her to comply with their treatment plan.
As Lia's condition deteriorates, the conflicts between the Lees and the medical professionals become more intense. The Lees are afraid that the hospital will take Lia away from them, and they feel that the doctors do not respect their cultural beliefs and traditions. On the other hand, the doctors are frustrated by the Lees' refusal to follow their medical advice and feel that they are not being cooperative.
Despite the cultural differences and misunderstandings between the Lees and the medical professionals, the book ultimately portrays both sides as well-intentioned and willing to try to understand one another. In the end, Lia is placed in a nursing home, where she receives the medical care she needs while also being able to maintain some of her Hmong traditions. The book ends with a message of hope and understanding, as the Lees and the medical professionals learn to respect and appreciate one another's cultural differences.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Chapter 10 Summary
Lia weighed 8 pounds 7 ounces and was a healthy child. This chapter also presents the example of ethnographer Dwight Conquergood, who respected Hmong culture and felt that knowledge should be transferred in two directions, with both western doctors and Hmong healers learning from one another. The Hmong, on the other hand, had a four-thousand-year-long reputation as scrappy fighters. Other cultural beliefs can outweigh the benefits of a life-saving procedure as when a Hmong woman refuses surgery because she fears being unable to have more children. Nam risus ante, dapibus a molestie consequat, ultrices ac magna.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Chapter 3: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Summary & Analysis
The media used phrases such as "Stone Age" or "emerging from the mists of time" in their descriptions of the refugees. It would be considered unprofessional and inappropriate for doctors to use religious rituals in their practice. They may refuse to drive their parents around, express little interest in Hmong culture, and even get involved with drugs or violence. Fusce dui lectus, congue vel laoreet ac, dictum vitae odio. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Her parents give her the medication successfully. Survivors arrived at crowded refugee camps near the Thai border.
(PDF) Anne Fadiman The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Farrar, Straus and Giroux (1998)
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Analysis She compares the research process itself to "Fish Soup," the Western medical practice shows the influence of holism, too. Afterword to the Fifteenth Anniversary Edition The Afterword was written in 2012, 15 years after the book was first published in 1997. In general, however, they avoided the American penal system. An elder chanted a greeting to Lia's soul at the apartment's open door, two live chickens in a bag next to him.
Lia had at least twenty more seizures in the next few months; twice her parents were worried enough to bring her to the emergency room at Merced Community Medical Center MCMC. Lia's room was always full of visitors. Some younger Hmong have become professionals such as lawyers, doctors, dentists, engineers, computer programmers, and accountants. The fact that it is associated with spirit possession, she explained, made it even more frightening. Fusce dui lectus, congue vel laoreet ac, dictum vitae odio. Chapter 19 Following in the footsteps of Shee Yee, a healer in Hmong folklore, txiv neebs, or shamans, pursue the lost souls of sic. Fadiman's attribution of specific cultural traits also ignores the individual differences between peopleAt the same time, she does her best to elicit many different points of view and to substantiate her claims with data.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Chapter 8: Foua and Nao Kao Summary & Analysis
The Hmong had heard that any wrongdoing in the US would land them in jail, and they would do nearly anything to avoid that fate. . Nam risus ante, dapibus a molestie consequat, ultrices ac magna. The attending resident, Lia left that night in her mother's arms. They miss their homeland terribly, and many live with the unrealistic hope of returning.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Chapter 12 Summary
Chapter 18 Now believing "cross-cultural misunderstanding" was behind Lia's fate, Anne describes other medical cases where Hmong Am. Fusce dui lectus, congue vel laoreet ac, dictum vitae odio. Sometimes doctors have no way of taking a patient's medical history, asking about symptoms, or obtaining essential information such as when the patient last ate, which can lead to dangerous side effects in the case of emergency surgery. She could avoid becoming infertile in the first place by respecting certain taboos, such as avoiding caves, where evil spirits called dabs might dwell and make a victim sterile by having sexual intercourse with her. Her father and mother believe this noise frightened Lia, causing her soul to retreat from her body. Opium swidden farming allowed the Hmong to pick up and move as needed, while still cultivating crops for survival.
The Orphan character, like the Hmong people, is left to manage on his own. A Hmong student once demonstrated this in class, when he stretched a 5-minute presentation on fish soup into a 45-minute talk on all aspects of the subject. Chapter 5 By the time she's four and a half years old, Lia has been to the Family Practice Center at MCMC over 100 times, with 17. A courageous fighter for the anticommunist Royal Lao forces, Vang Pao encouraged the Hmong to adapt to Lao society. Although she acknowledges that the Chinese were negatively biased towards the Hmong, she uncritically reiterates Chinese sources claiming that the Hmong are resistant to change. Most doctors prioritize curing patients with procedures proven to be effective in Western medicine.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Chapter 6 Summary
Several Lee children died on the journey. Anne Fadiman is the daughter of Clifton Fadiman a respected literary intellectual, radio broadcaster, television personality, author, and editor and Annalee Jacoby Fadiman a screenwriter and war correspondent. The lowland Lao may have been richer and politically more powerful, but the Hmong peered down on their masters like eagles looking at mice and so maintained a sense of superiority. Fusce dui lectus, congue vel laoreet ac, dictum vitae odio. He becomes "a patriot without a country" according to the CIA—just as the Hmong become a people without a country.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Chapter Summaries
Her parents call an ambulance, fearing the doctors won't give he. The Hmong were not only victims of slander; they also suffered from violence. Few Western patients have experienced the physical hardships Hmong refugees endured in Laos. Foua and Nao Kao now use American appliances, but they still speak only Hmong, practice only Hmong customs and religion, and know more about current events in Laos and Thailand than in the US. In America, she said, she felt stupid and naïve, unable to navigate even the simplest of tasks. Chapter 2 Anne recalls a story about a young Hmong American community college student in Merced. They believe their treatments are the only ones that will work.
