Book Report On The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down By Anne Fadiman

Based off of a real incident in the history of healthcare, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman retells of the prolonged suffering undergone by Lia Lee, an American born Hmong child afflicted with epilepsy; for the Hmong, the illness ‘epilepsy’ is termed as “soul loss” and warrants her a chance at becoming a renowned shaman in her community. Lia was born to parents Foua and Nao Kao Lee, and unlike the rest of her older siblings, was born in a Californian hospital with access to various modernized medical technology and treatment methods. However, as traditional Hmong, these procedures are unfamiliar and conflict with their own approaches to curing sicknesses, such as sacrificing animals and hiring a txiv neeb to preform …show more content…
Before opening the book and having only read the brief, I was under the impression that the lack of understanding that would occur between Lia’s parents and her doctors would largely be due to language barriers. In my parents’ case, the early stages of transitioning from Chinese immigrants to citizens, understanding and communicating with English was basically impossible; as this is the usual case with migrants from foreign countries, the popular attitude is usually to make an effort to learn the language and adapt to the new culture and environment. Initially, this was my line of thought, as one should move to another country under the presumption that they would eventually pick up the language, adjust to that society’s lifestyle, and behave accordingly to the new rules and regulations. However, the manner that most of the Hmong migrants acclimatized to American society went against my point of view. Fadiman was able to explain that the Hmong identity was structured around resistance against assimilation: they never wanted to immigrate to a new country to be controlled by another authoritative force like in Laos. After reading this book, I believe that Fadiman created this work with the prospect of addressing the issues of cross-cultural misunderstanding and the lack of cultural relativism that is prevalent in the medical world. The stories and information that she compiles can be understood and explored by basically anyone who picks up this book, but perhaps the intended audience are current and prospective health professionals. In particular, it appears to be directed towards medical workers who will often encounter the clash of cultures within their offices and clinics. The message is for these individuals