The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: Cultural Clash This book focuses on the “clash” of cultures that occurs between the Lee family‚ immigrants to the US from Laos‚ and the doctors that treat their daughter‚ Lia‚ who has been diagnosed with epilepsy. Lia’s parents‚ Foua and Nao Kao believe that Lia has fallen ill because she has “lost her soul”. This clash of ideas highlights one of the problems that the Lee’s faced when dealing with the medical community in the US – the Lee’s believed
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The spirit catches you and you fall down Introduction: “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down’’ by Anne Fadiman represents true story of the epileptic Hmong girl and her family displaced from China to the USA. She suffers severe grand mal seizures and eventually becomes vegetative for the rest of her life. Lia Lee’s story was a poignant example that emphasizes the cultural barriers between modern and traditional cultures through their approaches to the life‚ which results in complete destruction
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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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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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Immigrants Need to Know English If you turn over a permission slip or handout from a public school in Southern California on the backside you will find the same English words translated into Spanish. The act of translating the paper for the “child’s” wellbeing only provides a false illusion to the parent’s that the need to learn English is trivial. In reality it actually hinders the immigrants’ chances of success by denying the full language immersion in English that is needed to thrive in America
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Protective factors are those associated with reduced potential for drug use and risk factors are those that make drug use more likely. The main principles have to be considered: programs should enhance protective factors and reverse or reduce risk factors. Protective factors should include strong and positive family bonds‚ monitoring of children and peer’s activities‚ clear rules of conduct within the family‚ involvement between children and parents‚ success in school performance‚ strong bonds in
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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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"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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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” Reader’s Guide Directions: Read the captioned book. Then answer the questions contained in this study guide. Post your completed document to the appropriate assignment box on the course website. 1. What do you think of traditional Hmong birth practices (pp. 3-5)? Compare them to the techniques used when Lia was born (p. 7). How do Hmong and American birth practices differ? I think the Hmong traditional give birth practice is very unsafe and dirty. The
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