What can we learn from the spirit catches you and you fall down?
What can we learn from the spirit catches you and you fall down?
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a moving story that highlights the importance of acknowledging and respecting people’s beliefs as part of their health care — in other words, cultural competence. And thanks in part to this book, cultural competence is now a required lesson in many medical schools.
What is the meaning of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down?
‘The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down’ is the literal translation of the Hmong terminology for an epileptic seizure. Lia’s own family believed her seizures were caused by her soul leaving her body, which could be returned to her via animal sacrifice.
What is the main theme of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down?
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman is a critically acclaimed book describing the importance of understanding cultural influence on health care and health outcomes.
What type of book is The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down?
Biography
Creative nonfiction
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down/Genres
Is The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down a true story?
The story of Lia, the severely brain-damaged daughter of Hmong refugees who had resettled in California, became the subject of Ms. Fadiman’s first book, “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down,” published in 1997.
Is The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down an ethnography?
New York: Macmillan. Anne Fadiman’s ethnography The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down explores and documents how cultural barriers between the Hmong parents of Lia Lee and western medical practitioners led to the vegetative state of Lia Lee, because a successful treatment plan never came to fruition.
How does the spirit catches you end?
The Spirit Catches You closes with a neeb ceremony—a Hmong religious ritual meant to bring Lia’s soul back to her body after a big seizure leaves her officially brain-dead. As an outsider, author Anne Fadiman is our gateway into these proceedings.
Who published The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down?
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780374533403 |
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Publisher: | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
Publication date: | 04/24/2012 |
Series: | FSG Classics |
Pages: | 368 |
When was The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down published?
1997
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down/Originally published
The story of Lia, the severely brain-damaged daughter of Hmong refugees who had resettled in California, became the subject of Ms. Fadiman’s first book, “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down,” published in 1997.
How long is The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down?
7 hours and 54 minutes
The average reader will spend 7 hours and 54 minutes reading this book at 250 WPM (words per minute). The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down explores the clash between a small county hospital in California and a refugee family from Laos over the care of Lia Lee, a Hmong child diagnosed with severe epilepsy.
What is a Tvix Neeb?
At the center of Hmong culture is the Txiv Neeb, the shaman (literally, “father/master of spirits”). According to Hmong cosmology, the human body is the host for a number of souls. The isolation and separation of one or more of these souls from the body can cause disease, depression and death.
What medical condition features prominently in the spirit catches you and you fall down?
In Hmong culture, epilepsy is called quag dab peg, meaning “the spirit catches you and you fall down,” which is a culturally significant ailment because of the fact that it afflicts all of the community’s shamanistic healers.
When was the spirit catches you and you fall down published?
Publication date. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures is a 1997 book by Anne Fadiman that chronicles the struggles of a Hmong refugee family from Houaysouy, Sainyabuli Province, Laos, the Lees, and their interactions with the health care system in Merced, California.
Who is the narrator of the spirit catches you and you fall down?
The narrator—Anne—reflects on her time with the Lees, a Hmong American family living in Merced, California. She went to Read More Though Lia’s mother Foua Yang gives birth to Lia in the United States, she delivered 12 children in her native Laos. The…
What are the lessons of spirit catches you and you fall down?
Much of the lessons of this book can be applied to American Indigenous communities as well as the various cultural enclaves (Russian, Pacific Island, Persian, etc.) Being open to guidance when serving others is much like dancing where there is as much skill in following a partner’s lead as as there is in leading.
Who is Dan Murphy in spirit catches you and you fall down?
Eventually, on her third visit, Lia arrives while still seizing. In addition, they meet a doctor named Dan Murphy, who is curious about Hmong culture. This is unusual; at MCMC, most of the doctors are annoyed by the number of Hmong patients they see who are unwilling to accept proper treatment.