The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Analysis
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
In the book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman tells us the story of a little girl named Lia Lee, caught between the differences of two cultures. The differences in Lia’s parents’ knowledge, abilities, and understanding of the culture they were surrounded by and the rationalized facts that Western medicine and its culture provide bring us to the borderland of the two. When these two cultures meet Lia’s life is put in danger, not only by epilepsy and septic shock, but also by the conflicts between her parents and doctors. Lia’s life depended on the realities of the two cultures to act together in harmony to bring her health and happiness. The mutual misunderstanding of the two failed to bring help to her wellbeing. This quote by Fadiman, “I have come to believe that her life was not ruined by septic shock or noncompliant parents but by cross-cultural misunderstanding” (262) which shows us that while Lia was harmed by a physical disease, she was also harmed by a cultural disease or that which resulted in the conflicts between the two. Some of the conflicts between the cultures were the language barriers, prejudices of culture, and religious conflicts. The language barrier was a serious conflict that led to the inability of asking simple questions such as “Where do you hurt?” This led to the misdiagnosis many times for Lia. This language barrier also proved harmful to Lia’s wellbeing when she was finally correctly diagnosed and drugs were given. Lia’s parents had no way to be able to be even minutely successful in the administering of these drugs which led to the terrible injustice of Lia being taken away from her parents.
The medical professionals in this story were an interesting blend of misunderstanding and incredible empathy. For example, Neil Ernst and Peggy Philp take an interesting stance on this patient’s case. While they may have been more understanding than some of the
In the book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman tells us the story of a little girl named Lia Lee, caught between the differences of two cultures. The differences in Lia’s parents’ knowledge, abilities, and understanding of the culture they were surrounded by and the rationalized facts that Western medicine and its culture provide bring us to the borderland of the two. When these two cultures meet Lia’s life is put in danger, not only by epilepsy and septic shock, but also by the conflicts between her parents and doctors. Lia’s life depended on the realities of the two cultures to act together in harmony to bring her health and happiness. The mutual misunderstanding of the two failed to bring help to her wellbeing. This quote by Fadiman, “I have come to believe that her life was not ruined by septic shock or noncompliant parents but by cross-cultural misunderstanding” (262) which shows us that while Lia was harmed by a physical disease, she was also harmed by a cultural disease or that which resulted in the conflicts between the two. Some of the conflicts between the cultures were the language barriers, prejudices of culture, and religious conflicts. The language barrier was a serious conflict that led to the inability of asking simple questions such as “Where do you hurt?” This led to the misdiagnosis many times for Lia. This language barrier also proved harmful to Lia’s wellbeing when she was finally correctly diagnosed and drugs were given. Lia’s parents had no way to be able to be even minutely successful in the administering of these drugs which led to the terrible injustice of Lia being taken away from her parents.
The medical professionals in this story were an interesting blend of misunderstanding and incredible empathy. For example, Neil Ernst and Peggy Philp take an interesting stance on this patient’s case. While they may have been more understanding than some of the