Last semester I read the book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman for one of my social work classes. This book is closely related to the chapter we covered this week on immigrants and refugees. This topic definitely piqued my interest. The book provided me with a descriptive overview of the life of a refugee from their perspective‚ while our textbook provided me with the knowledge base that is needed to assist this population. From a local perspective‚ I could never grasp the
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The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman 1st chapter reflections: This chapter which introduced me to Lia’s family was interesting. I was shocked to read that in her mother’s country of Laos‚ Lia would have been born by her mother squatting on the floor! They also used special created remedies to solve health issues without relying on hospitals or clinics. It was also interesting to read how important the Hmong people believed in sprits and how their life decisions where decided
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country you know little about except for the fact that it’s safer than yours. You and your three children have successfully escaped persecution and are subsisting off of government aid. However‚ you don’t understand the Native language and you differ tremendously when it comes to cultural beliefs. You do know that when anyone is ill‚ it is because their soul is out of balance with their body‚ but the Natives in this country constantly resort to temples for intimate examinations that you consider
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Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Journal #2 In The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down‚ by Anne Fadiman‚ Lia Lee is a very sickly child‚ and is now unfortunately a “vegetable.” Much to the hospitals chagrin‚ they in fact are the reason why Lia is in a comatose state. The Lee’s argued with the doctors throughout Lia’s entire 4 years of medical strife with epilepsy about the medication and the way they were treating Lia. Fadiman juxtaposes the differences of the Hmong way of healing people:
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Final Paper: “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” By: Anne Fadiman Meghan Maloney 26 April 2013 To understand the struggles that the Hmong people face living in America it is important to understand where they come from and what they have gone through. The majority of the Hmong people originate from the mountainous country of Laos. The mountains created isolation from the neighboring cultures and cultivated a clan identity. They were part of a society where everyone worked together
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"The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" the book by Anne Fadiman is an interesting book that contains different situations where different cultures and traditions clashes as a result of different barriers. In this brief work I tried to shed light on some of these barriers that could exist in our clinical practice and how these barriers could be understood in different cultures. On the other hand‚ there is no doubt that cultural differences play an important role in problems analysis as well as
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and misunderstanding between two cultures? In Anne Fadiman’s novel‚ The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down‚ she begins the novel as an attempt to allocate responsibility for the mistreatment and exacerbation of Lia Lee’s epilepsy. The tension between the Hmong and United States medical culture exemplified the strain in America between a foreign culture dependent on rituals and society’s norm. As the novel progress‚ Fadiman realizes that neither culture is truly at fault. Lia’s situation stemmed
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The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Being culturally competent is essential in caring for the lives of others. As a nurse you will be caring for individuals and families who may or may not have the same beliefs and values and yourself. Despite the differences the nurse must be able to ask the appropriate questions‚ seek out tools that are going to help the client and family understand the importance of their care‚ and feel comfortable when
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Summary of The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down In ‘The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down’‚ Lia‚ a Hmong baby girl‚ is born to a Hmong family living in California as refugees away from their war torn land in Laos. In Laos the Lee’s where farmers and lived in the country according to their Hmong traditions and beliefs. In California they barely understood the language‚ much less Western culture or medicinal practices. In Hmong tradition‚ illness was seen as a spiritual problem rather than
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The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down by Ann Fadiman is a very interesting book. It’s amazing how difficult it is for Americans to understand other cultures because the United States is such a diverse country. However‚ as an American‚ I understood the frustrations that Lia Lee’s doctors’ felt when trying to diagnose and treat her properly. In this book both the American doctors and the Hmong peoples faced many hardships and barriers when trying to communicate with each other. After having read
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