America is the “melting pot” country where immigrants from various countries around the world come here and settle. They come here either for economy, political, education or medical reason. When they migrate here they bring with them their culture, religious, value and belief which makes America more diverse and interest. Yet, at the same time it often leads to two cultures collision. Cultural shock is unavoidable for almost newcomer refugee people. In the book” The Spirit Catch and You Will Fall” by Anne Fadiman described how Hmong and Western cultures has clashed over a post-natal care of the child and childbirth which caused a lot of stress and anxiety for Nao Kao family and the medical staffs at the Merced Community Medical Center. In Hmong culture, woman conceives, carries and …show more content…
Her score was ranked from 7 to 9 after four minutes of her birth which indicated that she was a healthy baby. She then placed in a “ steel and Plexiglas warmer” where the nurse put a plastic identification band around her wrist and stamped her footprint on the Newborn Identification. From there, she got removed and transferred to a nursery room where she got vitamin K injection on her thigh. Vitamin K would help prevent Lia from a rare problem of bleeding into brain in the first twelve weeks following birth. (web, n.p).She also received “ two drops of silver nitrate solution in each eye to prevent infection from gonococcal”(7). The nurse then bathed her with the Safeguard soap. On the New born identification form, It shown Lia was born at 7:09pm, on July 19,1982. As Foua recalled she didn’t know what her birthday was because her mother never recorded the time, date and year. All she could remember that Foua was born in the second season of an opium
‘The spirit catches you and you fall down’ was published in 2012 by essayist and reporter Anne Fadiman. This introductory book review analyzes the way in which different cultures perceive illnesses and diseases. It focuses on the story of the Lees a Hmong family, who moved to the United States and experiences difficulties with language, culture and biomedicine method of healing, which contradict to Hmong’s way of healing. The chapters describe the differences between the ways childbirth is conducted in Hmong society compared to the western society. As well as the struggle the Lees family has with the cultural differences in diagnoses and treatment of their ill daughter.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a biographical work on a Hmong family living in California during the early 80’s. While the book is a true accounting of the Lee’s family attempt to secure quality healthcare for their epileptic daughter while traversing the American medical system and the Department of Children Services. The author, Anne Fadiman, takes the reader on a painstaking but necessary journey of Hmong history and culture and how they came to reside in Merced, California. As you learn more about the history of the Hmong people, you come to admire them as a strong and resilient people that have, as a people, overcome many challenges with respect to being conquered, nomadic and always having to start over.
Abstract This paper examines two theoretical perspectives, the humanistic perspective and the systems theory. Later, these perspectives/theories are applied to conduct a micro and macro level analysis of Lia’s life and her parents’ Foua and Nao Kao’s relationship/cultural belief to the Western healthcare system in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. Furthermore, the implications of various empirical research are incorporated and used to guide potential methods that could be applied to relevant stories of the book. Moreover, the studies discussed different social issues and elements of cultural competence in the Western Healthcare system.
I finish reading chapter 8 to chapter 13 in Spirit Catches you, and I am so impressed by this section. Because there is much irony in these chapters, additionally the tension of the story reaches its climax in chapter 11 to 12. At the beginning of this section, the author Fadiman puts herself into the whole story. The introduction of her communication experience with Hmong people leads to culture shock.
Book Review: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Tim Merlino Drexel University November 2017 The patient-doctor relationship recognizes transference affects as a bi-directional relationship which affects the way a health care provider treats a patient and the way the patient responds to treatment (Zinn, 1990). Fadiman’s book examines different problems in the culture of American medicine by highlighting a tragedy centered around a Hmong immigrant family and their sick child, Lia, in California (Fadiman, 2012). The story also highlights some important lessons to be learned by the American health care system to avoid future incidents like described by Fadiman and to ultimately apply cultural competency in public health (Fadiman, 2012).
After Lia’s grand mal seizure however, the doctors withdraw from battle and leave Lia at her parents’ discretion. Their concession actually allows Lia’s development to flourish. Although she is brain dead and her cognitive abilities do not improve, her physical development is surprisingly restored to almost typical. “[Lia] was nothing like the patients in vegetative states… pasty skinned carcasses with slack mouths and hair like straw… [Lia’s] black hair was shiny, her skin was soft and fine” (Fadiman 216).
President Biden decided to raise the number of refugees entering the US from eighteen thousand, which is a low ceiling imposed by President Trump in 2020. However, this is difficult due to the intransigent Republican caucus. This implied that the government cannot handle the refugee resettlement alone. The citizens are a principal part to achieve the goals of resettling refugees. The author uses his and others’ credibility to support his argument about the importance of refugees and build the readers' trust and
Madeline Leininger’s Cultural Care Diversity and Universality Theory, deals with the impact of culture on health and healing. In health care today, a nurse must deal with people from many backgrounds, cultures, and ethnic origins. Transcultural nursing is practiced throughout nursing when caring for people from different cultures. The purpose of Leininger’s theory is to produce knowledge related to nursing care of people from diverse nationalities, who value their ethnic heritage and culture. Leininger’s theory recognized and understood cultural differences and similarities while caring for patients of different backgrounds.
Immigrants usually go through phases when it comes to migrating to a new country and this essay was an attempt to outline those phases with an emphasis on the negative effects of assimilation. Firstly, isolation. Nearly every immigrant finds themselves isolated at first, but this tends to go away as they become assimilated with the new culture. As this happens, they start to lose touch with their cultural identity and start to change in order to fit in with the new culture. Sometimes this is forced, other times the immigrant knowingly assimilates.
Anne Fadiman, author of the book, ‘The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” reveals the negative effects of no cross-cultural communication in the medical profession. Lia Lee and her family had no previous experiences in an American hospital, America no less. This proved to be difficult, leading both sides (Hmong family and doctors) to misinterpret what both are doing and saying. This book summary summarized the book, the qualifications of the sources used, and critiques the book as a whole.
They feel and become left out when they are with their community’s group of friends. In addition, some older children who came to the United States have a hard time learning a new culture because it was a culture shock to them. There are two major things that become problems in their journey to adopt a new culture; barrier to language and living their lifestyle. While adapting new culture, they have a difficult journey because of the bully, discrimination, and racism that they encounter. Some of these situations that Chin refugees face can be related to how Faith faces her problems with cultures and
For some, this leads to anger, cultural shame and a desire to cast off all markers of difference. However, most embrace their differences and fight for their right to sit at the table. In terms of the immigrant population, new world authors investigate the process of adopting a new hybrid identity and eventually becoming Arab American. In this, the authors are especially drawn to the encounter of east and west and what impact it makes on each party.
SECTION 3: Social Impacts of the Refugees From the beginning of the civil war and emergence of the ISIS in the Middle East, most people were converted to refugees and left their homeland with the aim of finding a harmony life. These people are experiencing some shocking scenes in their life for the first time like losing one of their beloved ones. Experiencing these moments will change their mentality and their aspects toward their social life.
The Federal government has given support to the new communities, though it is shamefully insufficient, from the moment of arrival most refugees are burdened with complicated loans and fees. There are a substantial number of congressional representatives that believe the American Dream is one accomplished through self-sufficiency alone, in that light it is remarkable that even a single refugee is able to achieve their American Dream. A teacher of a refugee English class was quoted saying that “They (the refugees) didn’t have electricity, they didn’t have computers. They needed help in just living in this modern world”,
Every year, the lives of millions are completely torn apart due to various forms of crisis, as they are forced to leave their countries due to conflicts, or for religious and political reasons. These people are known as refugees. A refugee is “someone who has been forced to leave a country because of war or for religious or political reasons”- as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. All refugees are forced to leave their homes and countries for the sake of their own lives. They risk their lives to fight through dangerous, tiring, and sometimes even illegal paths in hopes that it will lead them to safer neighboring countries or to Europe, and eventually to a much safer and improved life.