The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures

A remarkably insightful, and readable, telling of the cultural clash between a Hmong family and their daughter's medical team in California. It thoughtfully captures not just the barrier of language but, more importantly, the fundamental clash of spiritual beliefs and medical science.

The Lee's second youngest daughter has severe epilepsy. American medicine can help to manage her condition. The Lee's Hmong culture brings other factors into play.

Published in 1997, this book continues to be required reading in some medical programs to provide insight into cultural empathy. Its capacity to open the reader's mind to other perspectives reaches well beyond the medical community; highly recommended for anyone seeking ways to understand others.

 

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Author(s): 
Anne Fadiman
Year: 
1997
Book type: 
Country: 
America
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