The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures

De: Anne Fadiman

Narrado por: Pamela Xiong

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction

When three-month-old Lia Lee arrived at the county hospital emergency room in Merced, California, a chain of events was set in motion from which neither she nor her parents nor her doctors would ever recover. Lia's parents, Foua and Nao Kao, were part of a large Hmong community in Merced, refugees from the CIA-run "Quiet War" in Laos. The Hmong, traditionally a close-knit people, have been less amenable to assimilation than most immigrants, adhering steadfastly to the rituals and beliefs of their ancestors. Lia's pediatricians, Neil Ernst and his wife, Peggy Philip, cleaved just as strongly to another tradition: that of Western medicine.

When Lia Lee entered the American medical system, diagnosed as an epileptic, her story became a tragic case history of cultural miscommunication. Parents and doctors both wanted the best for Lia, but their ideas about the causes of her illness and its treatment could hardly have been more different. The Hmong see illness and healing as spiritual matters linked to virtually everything in the universe while medical community marks a division between body and soul and concerns itself almost exclusively with the former.

Lia's doctors ascribed her seizures to the misfiring of her cerebral neurons; her parents called her illness qaug dab peg - the spirit catches you and you fall down - and ascribed it to the wandering of her soul. The doctors prescribed anticonvulsants; her parents preferred animal sacrifices.

©1997 Anne Fadiman, Afterword copyright 2012 by Anne Fadiman (P)2015 Audible Inc.

cultural understandment

Narrator was excellent, loved the book even though it made me sad. This book opens your eyes with cultural differences with western medicine. I recommend this book to all and especially those in the medical field.

Read this!

This book is beautifully written and opens your eyes to how important communication is between cultures. I loved it.

Updated Edition

If you read and enjoyed this book, originally published in 1997, you will be pleased that this 15th anniversary edition contains an epilogue so you can find out what happened in later years. The book remains compelling and relevant.

Amazing

This book is awesome!! It really shows the cross cultural defecits that have existed in our western medical facilities and the importance of a patient centered medical home that has providers that are respectful and aware of other cultures like the Hmong and are not so quick to judge. This book really pulls at the heart strings! Loved it! The narrator was great too! Really kept me interested and listening with her tone of voice and enthusiasm.

Excellent read, very informative.

I enjoyed this book immensely. Despite the negative comments about the narrator, I think she did very well overall. I truly believe that the areas in which mistakes were made in pronunciation, etc. complimented the book in it's entirety. It really drives home the difficulties with communication that are detailed so well in the book.

Loved it. The book is well written and I love it.

The book is relevant for my study as a nurse and also a good read

Phenomenal book, reading with some errors

This is a landmark book for understanding how cultural differences can negatively impact patient care when unaddressed, and strengthen bonds when embraced. The reader has a lovely voice, good pacing, and is familiar with Hmong pronunciation. Some English words are mispronounced. For example, she repeatedly refers to the medically “indignant” cared for at MCMC. It is a minor nuisance as ling as you are prepared.

A great book for interpreters

This book can be compared to any form of language interpreting. The story is amazing and common when there is a language barrier and cultural clash. I enjoyed hearing this book narrated by Hmong woman who pronounced all the Hmong words correctly but laughed at how many English words were mispronounced. It was especially strange to hear her way of pluralizing words. Lee’s (leezuzes) I appreciate the author and all the research she did to complete this long and emotional project and am glad it influenced her life in so many ways. This book still applies today with so many cultural barriers and still proves that America is treating refugees as “lesser” humans. So sad.

The narrator was great!!

In my opinion, people have not been fair to the narrator, and she is Hmong and did a great job on the English and Hmong!

Pure humanity and a look at another world of culture

I enjoyed every moment of this enriching and bittersweet story. I agree with Anne Fatima, our “dry” American culture can learn so much from the Hmong people and how they allow for mourning and tears and whole person wellbeing and existence. I love how she tells the story from both sides of the Americans and the Hmong people. She shares her feelings and allows us to decide what the ethical and humanity challenges are in our world. I feel a heartbeat closer to the Hmong people and I’m only even more so inspired to travel and humbly develop empathic experiences with other cultures. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is looking for truth and diverse stories.