The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

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Average customer rating 4.8 (11 comments)

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The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down makes a strong case for cultural understanding as a first step in medical treatment. It should be required reading for anyone working in a big city hospital or a smaller community with a large immigrant population. As the mother of a child with intractable epilepsy, it was distressing to witness the little girl's deterioration, but I understood why her parents would not - or could not - comply with her doctor's orders. It's also weirdly comforting for me to see other cultures taking a positive view of seizures, coming from a place where they are seen only as affliction and disability.

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As a medical provider, I found Anne Fadiman's book extremely eye-opening and insightful. Part history of the Hmong culture (the ethnicity depicted in Clint Eastwood's 2008 film, Gran Torino) and part biography of an epileptic toddler and her family's struggles with the American healthcare system, Fadiman describes The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down "not as the book about the Hmong but as a book about communication and miscommunication across cultures." I originally picked up this book to learn more about epilepsy but found myself realizing and redefining my own intolerance to other cultures.

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Best thing I've ever read on how cultures collide, even in multi-cultural America. There are no heroes and no villains in this book, only people trying to do the right thing. Should be required reading for everyone in the health care and social work professions.

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This is a great book for not only understanding Hmong culture, but American culture as well. A very well written anthropologically informed study of the relationship between a Hmong family, their severely epilectic daughter, Americans, cultural ideas, and medical systems. A great read.

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The most eye opening book that i've read about healthcare in my doctoral training. this book should be mandatory for anyone involved in healthcare since it teaches so much about one culture, the Hmong, and does it on an emotional level. once you read this you'll never forget lia lee.

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Very insightful reading.

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This book was selected and read as a community book project in Davis, CA, and opened my eyes to the often conflicting traditions of Western medicine and the Hmong culture. I think this is a must read - both educationally and emotionally stimulating.

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Fadiman taught me Hmong history and culture, all through the story of one small child with epilepsy. While recounting the struggle between the competing perspectives of the doctors and the patient/patient's family, Fadiman remains open to and respectful of both. A great story and wonderful writing.

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Clearly describes medical and cultural views about a Hmong child with epilepsy and does not present either side as wrong. Very good read.

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Fadiman has written a fantastic book about the clash between two cultures met in the arena of medicine. At three months old Lia, daughter of Hmong immigrants, developed symptoms of epilepsy. Her parents viewed this condition as indication that her soul had been stolen by a malevolent spirit. Her team of doctors at the Merced Community Medical Center prescribed medicine that could halt her seizures. But her parents did not understand the doctors' diagnosis, routinely failed to administer her medications and preferred to treat her with traditional Hmong healing methods. Both the doctors and her parents cared deeply for Lia, but their complete failure to understand each other led to a disastrous series of events and tragedy. This book is a skillful woven story built of Lia's complex medical case, her family's stubborn solidarity and an exploration into Hmong culture, history and folklore. It presents both sides of the story fairly, looking in equal depth at the doctors' concerns and the deep-rooted beliefs of the Hmong.

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Despite the fact that I am a nurse so could relate to the many difficulties of language barriers with patients, I loved the descriptions of the cultural traditions and beliefs of the Hmong. There is a good historical description of the Hmong and their involvement with the Vietnam War as well as their escape from Loas and immigration to the U.S. A very interesting read.