The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
by Anne Fadiman
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Manufacturer: Farrar Straus Giroux
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Binding: Unbound
EAN: 9780374700096
Format: Import
ISBN: 0374700095
Label: Farrar Straus Giroux
Publication Date: 1997-09
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Studio: Farrar Straus Giroux
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Health care must account for personal cultural beliefs
Comment: I am a PhD student in Sociology and just read this book as a requirement for my assistantship work in a hospital. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a very interesting case study of the intersection of the US health care system (including its workers and clinicians) and people of different spiritual and national backgrounds. The US health care system is rigid and believes in a singular biomedical model of medical healing, and this book shows that this view does not allow room to include the complexities of the other dimensions to a person. For example, the Hmong described in this book do not see a difference between mind and body. Therefore, taking care of the body without respect to the mind is not complete healing. I know that medicine in our society aims at saving physical lives at the cost of all else, and often the individual beliefs are neglected.
I think this book also highlighted that some hospitals do have adequate interpreters or offer these services to patients. It surprised me that the local hospital in the book did not have proper Hmong interpreters when such a large proportion of the city residents were Hmong. In this book, I did value the efforts at practicing excellent medicine (from their own view) of the doctors and how they did go out of their way to fight for the life of Lia.
It's too much for people in the health profession to know the cultural beliefs of every one of their patients, so I think it is important to spend time at the first meeting to open the doors of discussion and ask the patient or client what her/is cultural and spiritual views are and keep a constant dialogue throughout the healing process.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Must read!
Comment: I love this book! It was about a vietnamese immigrants whose daughter had epilepsy. It was a clash of cultures and looks into one major flaw of our healthcare system. The main theme language and cultural barriers that can create roadblocks to getting proper medical care. One feels for these parents and I don't think I could ever be as patient a parent as they were under these difficult circumstances. Highly recommend!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Catch the Spirit
Comment: Reading this extraordinary book has helped me retrieve a significant part of my soul. A deep gratitude to the author for the tremendous sensitivity, involvement and work required to write such a thorough anatomy of the limits of communication for which the Hmong culture versus the American, and epilepsy versus "normalcy" are such strong metaphors.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the most remarkable books I've read
Comment: I don't keep many books for my permanent library, but this is one of them. It is a remarkable study of the meeting, misunderstanding, and ongoing struggle for harmony between Western ways and the unique culture of the Hmong people. The title story is only part, though a major one, of the book; a young Hmong girl became epileptic, and the long-running encounter of her family with Western medical traditions, hospital procedures, and cultural assumptions, occupies the greater part of the text. The story shows in many poignant ways how good intentions could not overcome radically different world views. Just how great the misunderstanding was (on both sides), can be glimpsed by an example: the author refers to "...the kind of blind spot that made a Merced health department employee once write, about a child from a family that views the entire universe as sacred:
Name: Lee, Lia
Principla Language: Hmong
Ethnic Group: Hmong
Religion: None"
The Hmong are animists, regarding all things as having spirits, especially animals...so, the characterization of them as having no religion is laughable--but also tragic. The outcome of this young girl's affliction was similarly tragic...not only for her, but for her family, her doctors, and the Western friends who tried in various ways to be helpful.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants a brilliant example of how cultural assumptions and misunderstanding can play out in damage and pain to people on all sides of the interaction. It is sad but not pointless to consider a book such as this; it can only prove instructive and will ultimately help any number of people to better understand and coexist together.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A must read for anyone entering the healthcare sector.
Comment: This book is a wonderful telling of both perspectives (doctors ans social services vs. the patient's family) from the healthcare and cultural issues, clashes, and understandings of a foreign family in the American healthcare system. This book will help professionals and students entering the healthcare field to better understand that cultural differences don't have to be roadblocks in their treatment plans. Learn to understand your patients better and you may learn how to better treat their medical needs. It is also a good read for anyone seeking to better understand the issues that foreign families face when being forced to aclimate to American cuture and society.
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