Literary Analysis Essay on The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

Introduction

The book “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” is written and published by Anne Fadiman. The book explores the tragedy when two very mutually exclusive and different cultural viewpoints co into contact with one another. There are two cultures that the book explores and engages with; one is the Western medicine culture, and the other is the Hmong culture of Northern LAO. The book brings into perspective the theme of xenophobia by demonstrating how two cultures tussle against each other without compromising their practices or dominating each other.

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Writing Style and Organization

The writing style of the book is literary journalism. The text reads like a magazine article exhibiting a great touch of journalism skills, as the author interviews a host of people from different places and of different cultures (Taylor, 2003). Also, there is a sense that the author is observing events that are happening. She seems to have emotional responses as the events unfold. Additionally, the book has no plan, and there is no line of argument per se, which ascribes to journalism as the occupation whereby authors know less than everyone else. In that regard, Fadiman had her misgivings and doubts, which enable readers to comprehend and relate clearly with the context and content.

Points of View

The book bases its ideas on a child born with epilepsy from a Hmong family hosted as refugees in California. The child's name is Lia, and the events occur in the early 1980s. The book's context relies on two distinct cultures look at Lia’s disease. Among the Hmong people, epilepsy or “quag dab peg," means the “spirit catches you and you fall down” (Fadiman, 2012). The Hmong people believe the demons instigate the disease known as a dab that takes the soul of an epileptic patient. The illness has a unique relationship with the universe, but, as is the case for Lia, more often than not, it is a curse (Fadiman, 2012).

In an attempt to treat Lia disease, her family set up a traditional custom known as the shaman to summon the soul of Lia back. This summon involves chanting and killing innocent animals as a sacrifice, which they believed would treat the disease. However, although the approach may have some significant impact by alleviating some suffering, the method causes more suffering by killing animals needlessly, which does not contribute to the patient's pain (Taylor, 2003).

Merced doctors in California view Lia’s disease as a brain electrochemical activity disruption, and they support their view with empirical evidence. Therefore, they propose treatment based on testing drugs to alleviate or reduce the suffering and symptoms of epilepsy (Fadiman, 2012). After the event of severe seizure, she is admitted to the hospital, where she stays away from her family. Fadiman establishes the straining relationship between the two cultures from her friend, who was working as a doctor. She reveals the miscommunication and misunderstanding, which creates disastrous consequences for all the parties involved.

The illness of Lia is overshadowed by the hostility and mistrust between the doctors and her parents. The author creates an empathizing situation for both sides, guided by their cultural inclinations. Lia’s parent’s cultural beliefs create disagreement with the empirical medical practices by the westerns. Fadiman says, " A productive and mutually invigorating dialogue, with neither side dominating nor winning out” (Fadiman, 1999). Is the Hmong culture to be blamed for the consequential misfortunes regarding their beliefs and treatments? According to the doctors, the Hmong negligence, lack of medical knowledge, and training as a proper way to treat it is the root of Lia's suffering (Fadiman, 2012). But Lia family blames doctors for their lack of emotional capacity and for their overreliance on analytics and data to treat. The book reveals various scenarios where the doctors interact with Hmong patients and get accused of doing the wrong, hence showing their inability to relate with Hmong people (Fadiman, 2012).

Discussion

The general view of the western medical practitioners is that the parents are the cause of increased suffering and are to blame for failing to give the child an opportunity for the right medication. From a neutral point of view, the underlying question is whether doctors can blame Lia's parents for objecting to the drug and opting for spiritual healing. On the one hand, it is hard to blame them, given their philosophical and cultural beliefs. On the other hand, they can be blamed for their ignorance and inability to understand western medicine culture (Fadiman, 1999).

Also, there is a question on whether Hmong people can blame doctors for emotional negligence as human beings? Given the issues at hand, the medical practitioners cannot be blamed for emotional neglect if they ignore the superstitions in favor of their proven practice of treating epilepsy. However, blaming can happen when they show ham-fisted crass interactions with the patient and Hmong people (Fadiman, 2012).

Also, the book presents two ways of reducing epilepsy symptoms and differing approaches. One is spiritual healing, which has negative consequences, and the other is life-enhancing medicine. However, one would argue that it is appropriate to dismiss spiritual healing or shamanism to enhance life and soul. To an extent, the book adopts this line of argument to suggest that spiritual healing is a junk theory that can be debunked by the empirical evidence of reduced suffering following western medical practices. However, people have the right to practice their beliefs and follow their cultural beliefs.

Basing on the themes presented by the author, another line of argument is whether science is an ideology or an ism. From a distance, the book inclination on the Hmong spiritual healing suggests that science might be an ism. Hmong people's perspective is that science, just like their beliefs, is a foreign ideology that they cannot understand and relate. However, from the Westerners, science is objective and is considered as something powerful hence, no one should criticize the scientific truth founded on years of study and practice. Also, science is a method for empirically testing, proposing, defining, and redefining reality models (Taylor, 2003). In that sense, the model cannot fall or stand on ideological purity or conformity but based on the reliability and accuracy of the predictions. Shamanism is pure ideology and dogma; hence there is no evidence of a single working method or technology to prove otherwise.

The author extends the tussle between shamanism and science through the empathetic mood and language she uses to deliver ideas between the practices and beliefs between these two cultures. The book brings forth the question of whether science and shamanism are of the same worth. Basing on the presentation of the practices by the two cultures, science worth is incalculable, and the shamanism value is negative. Shamanism will keep the epilepsy symptoms increasing, and inflicting more suffering to the patients and animals, while science will use empirical methods to alleviate symptoms and pain.

Also, the theme of cultural relativism reveals itself in the way both cultures approach health. The common ground is that health is part and parcel of culture. The differences arise when Hmong people sternly associate health as a spiritual matter, which implies that medical practitioners' intervention has unbearable consequences (Fadiman, 1999). However, the author proves that spiritual healing and reliance over shamanism to treat disease increases suffering. Regarding western medicine, although physicians are not mistakes proof, mistakes are not similar. Some mistakes can be acceptable such as technical mistakes, which can be rectified through retraining, while other mistakes such as moral errors are unacceptable in any profession (Fadiman, 2012). Indeed, the westerners might not think that preserving life has unbearable consequences, which can be avoided by spiritual healing.

Additionally, the Hmong people refuse to compromise and incorporate the powerful and acceptable western medical practices, not because of their personalities but more because of the ingrained trait and sincere expression to preserve the integrity of their culture. This trait allowed the Hmong people to survive as a different standalone culture, albeit the existence of other dominant cultures such as contemporary America or ancient China (Taylor, 2003).

In general, the book inclination, if there is any, is towards creating general cultural understanding and empathy from both parties, which would benefit the patients. The author’s viewpoint is that that kind of recognition is hard to achieve. Medical practitioners will have to give up the analytical intensity and incorporate other methods such as relational discipline. The main line of the argument is that western medical practices and philosophical orientation could be incompatible with the Hmong cultural belief system. The philosophical orientation entails favoring the soul or supporting life. For the western practices, favoring and saving a life is paramount, however, for the Hmong folks, the soul is the ultimate force that guards life and is held with high regard than life (Fadiman, 2012). Hmong people believe that life is knitted together by forces which they can comprehend and manipulate to their favor; hence they rebuke the existence of science as an ally that can preserve life.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the book is about a conflict of two cultures, grief and fear of change, duty, parental love, and compounded misunderstandings. It presents a bunch of stereotypical beliefs of what cultural beliefs, think, and rules on how to deal with specific situations. The book has no villains or heroes but colossal innocent suffering and a demonstration of moral compass. The lesson of the study is that there is nothing to be learned from tragedy to avoid tragedy. Neither careful thinking nor modest morals because there are no clear morals in the face of tragedy. Although Lia's suffering is an exhibition of adversity, the book also generates some hope in the sense that the medical practitioners at Merced had a comprehensive understanding of cross-cultural medicine. The book advocates for cross-cultural training for the medical professions to improve on their technical ability and moral compass when dealing with cultural complexities.

References

Fadiman, A. (2012). The spirit catches you, and you fall down: A Hmong Child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures. Macmillan.

Fadiman, A. (1999). The spirit catches you, and you fall down. New York: Noonday.

Taylor, J. S. (2003). You're attracted to the story, and you're falling down to it: Ethnography, cultural competence, and tragedy. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 17(2), 159-181. https://doi.org/10.1525/maq.2003.17.2.159.