The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

For the second essay in this course, I decided to choose the book titled "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures," by Anne Fadiman. The reason for choosing this read was my interest and fascination with the Hmong culture. I had never heard of the Hmong culture before until a couple of years ago when I wrote a research paper about sleep paralysis, in which I wrote about how the Hmong interpret their experience. Although…

Everyone comes from a cultural background carrying a different set of beliefs. Much of your identity is influenced by the environment in which you grew up in and by how you were brought up and raised. Since birth, you were taught by your parents and community a standard in which ways to behave, in which ways to interact with others respectively, in which is right from wrong, the list goes on. These are just a few that are ingrained in someone unknowingly. If one were to immerse himself fully…

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…

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down written by Ann Fadiman is about a Hmong child, Lia Lee, that has epilepsy. Lia Lees’ story shows the importance of communication in the medical profession dealing with different cultures. Yer, Lia’s older sister, slammed a door which triggered Lia’s first seizure. Quag dab peg or “the spirit catches you when you fall down” is the diagnosis that her parents gave her illness. The Lee family believed in spiritual healing rather than prescribed medication…

opposite. The doctors see the potential in prescribing the necessary medications to control Lia’s seizures, whereas they see seizures as the power to perceive things other people cannot see and the only way to treat it is through the ritual of healing spirits. Parents are believed to be responsible for the child’s welfare and for…

uses evidence from outside sources that have a Rogerian perspective as well. For example, Anne Fadiman quotes Dwight Conquergood, an ethnographer, who stated, he heard horror stories from refugees about the people in the hospital who would cut their spirit-strings from their wrist because the nurses believed they carried germs and doctors were cutting off neck-rings that were on the babies, which kept the life-soul of the baby intact (36). Dwight Conquergood argued that “instead of working in…

healthcare system is moving towards patient centeredness so it is imperative that we built a strong foundation as to what patient-centeredness is? Of all the concepts we learned, this concept struck with me the most because of the book (The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down) we had to read for our pharmaceutical skills discussion. The book is about a young girl named Lia Lee who is suffering from epilepsy. In this book, the…

They have no American cultural background and didn’t speak the English language. Foua and Nao Kao daughter Lia was diagnosed with epileptic seizures at a young age as the Hmong identify it as “quag dab peg” which means the spirit catches you and you fall down. She was treated with multiple types of medications but none seemed to give positive results. The parent’s resourced to what they believed was Lias problem, her soul leaving her body. Foua said, “The doctors can fix some sicknesses…

As a practice-heavy field, social work may not appear to place much importance on theory; however, theory should dictate every decision social workers make. Perspectives for practice include the well-known theories of psychodynamic and systems, as well as lesser-known perspectives such as existential. Though some theoretical perspectives are better suited for either a micro or macro setting only, social workers should possess a diverse and readily available knowledge of theories to aid their…

Research Question: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall by Anne Fadiman highlights the significant role of cultural competence and its position in the healthcare system. Since the release of the true story of the Lia Lee, a Hmong child diagnosed with severe epilepsy in 1997, what steps have been taken in our healthcare system to counter the role of cultural differences? The Spirt Catches You and You Fall Down follows the true story of a healthcare battle between a hospital in California and a…