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¶ … spirit catches you and you fall down.
Notions of epilepsy amongst the Hmong nation are diametrically different to those of the West.
The Hmong believe that epileptic individuals are particularly fancied by malevolent spirits (called 'dabs') that enter their bodies, make them sick, and allow them to communicate with the spirit realm in order to serve as mediums to help others in their present existence and to communicate with those who are dead.
This religious belief is called shamanistic animism, which asserts that malevolent spirits are constantly seeking human souls to inhabit, particularly those of vulnerable or unloved children (although Lia, in this case, was the favorite child) and that epilepsy is but one instance of the spirit's inhabiting the human body.
In Hmong culture, epilepsy is referred to as quag deb peg (I.e. "The spirit catches you and you fall down."). Perceived as an honorable...
Recipients of their help are, sometimes, helped. It may be due to the fact that impact of their treatment acts as placebo. Nonetheless, efficacious results reinforce cultural beliefs about healing characteristics that epileptics possess. As a result of their belief in this process, Hmong individuals would certainly be against western medical interventions that seek to cure epilepsy in any which way or manner.
Inclusive amongst other rituals and customs that contradict western medical tradition, is the fact that some Hmong perform traditional animal sacrifice, related, too, to cultural myths of shamanistic animism, and they disallow invasive…
Reference
Fadiman, A. The spirit catches you and you fall down. Farrar & co., 1997
Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman is a groundbreaking book about cross-cultural communication in health care. The book is about Lia Lee, who was the first in her Hmong family to be born in the United States. Her parents spoke no English. When Lia Lee was three months old, she had her first seizure. Due to misdiagnosis, a string of unfortunate events prevented Lia Lee from
The family would certainly have been more comfortable if the hospital made more of an effort to understand their culture and beliefs. The Lees were treated as if they were indignant and unresponsive to the needs of their child which was not the case at all. The hospital could have enlisted the help of affluent Hmong natives who have become more accustomed to American traditions. This person could have helped
Within this clash of cultures, the Lee family did not know how to cope with the medical system in place to help Lia and her epilepsy. When they refused to give her the medications, Lia was removed from the home and placed in foster care. When the foster care parents gave her the prescribed medication, her condition worsened in several important ways. The foster parents believe that Lia's parents realized
Spirit Faidman, Anne. (1998) The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The title of Anne Fadiman's book on the implications of multiculturalism in modern nursing sounds more like a religious testimony than a textual asset to the modern nursing profession. However, Faidman tells a tale of Biblical proportions, and the emotional nature of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is epic in its
Yet the nightmare continued, because the communication problems were not resolved. During the next four years, her anticonvulsant medicines were changed about 25 times, which would have been hell for any family. The Lees questioned the value of so many prescriptions, especially with their Hmong mindset, and did not follow directions. Of course, this was exacerbated by the fact that they did not understand the dosages. The doctors inaccurately concluded
They cannot ignore the socioeconomic issues of adversity so often present and, where necessary, need to act as advocates, mediators and social brokers (Compton, Galaway, & Curnoyer, 2005). The concern is that the issue of healthcare for culturally diverse individuals is so complex, there are no exact rights and wrongs. For example, in Fadiman's book, no person(s) can be said to be ultimately correct or incorrect in his/her behavior or