Essays on Fadiman

Report from Chapters 6 & 16 in Ann Fadiman’s “The Spirit Catches and You Fall Down”

Chapter 6: high velocity transcortical lead therapy

Hmong in America present challenges in the handling of cross-cultural medicine. At the Merced Community Medical Center (MCMC) the Hmong immigrants feel that their cultural practices and beliefs, such as women exposing themselves to doctors during medical examinations, are not right but they feel obliged by the local systems. There is a legal implication on the rights of patients in dealing with doctors since the doctors seem to disregard the rights their patients have to select treatment. For instance the issue of the lady who had blisters in her mouth and instead ...

Abstract

The Hmong is one of the many human race groups who at the moment are occupying Minnesota and California cities found in the United States of America. The group is from different countries found in Asia for instance China, others from Vietnam whereas others have their roots in the country of Thailand. The research seeks provide in-depth understanding of traditional cultural practices of Hmong people, comparing them with present time in order to motivate critical and creative thinking about differences in western culture and also prompt more research questions in the intercultural communication frontier. This paper will seek to ...

Anne Fadiman's 1997 novel The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures tells the story of a struggling Hmong family and their attempts to treat the epilepsy of their daughter Lia Lee. A tremendous culture conflict is presented within this work, as the American doctors cannot communicate with the family effectively, due to the language and culture barriers. One of the central conflicts between the American doctors and the Hmong is that the Hmong see epilepsy as something belonging to the divine, while the doctors only see it ...