Stress and the Clash of Cultures

A detailed Summary of Stress and the Clash of Cultures

Refugees from Laos began immigrating to the United States in the 1970's. Since then, over 100,000 Hmong have settled in the United States. Many came because they felt they had no other option. They could not return to their homes in Laos because they faced persecution, and they had to leave the refugee camps in Thailand due to closure. Anne Fadiman's book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, explores a Hmong family, American health care, and the disastrous encounters between the two disparate cultures.

Lia Lee, born in 1981, developed symptoms of epilepsy. However, by 1988, Lia was brain dead after years of misunderstanding, over-medication, and culture clash. Fadiman states that what the doctors saw as clinical professionalism, the Lees viewed as arrogance and cold indifference. Additionally, Fadiman shows readers how each party blamed the other for Lia's illness, yet the assumptions and beliefs that each group brought to the doctor-patient interactions were never explored. American doctors saw Lia's epilepsy as a neurological abnormality, but the Lees perceived Lia's illness as a loss of her soul. They believed only appeasement of the lost soul and the restoration of spiritual order would cure their daughter.

legitimate way to approach health problems. I think that is why some

be physically incomplete during the next incarnation, so surgery is

unconscious, their souls are at large, so anesthesia may lead to

atients fail to comply with these expectations, doctors may feel personally and medically threatened and lash out at patients or health care workers. An example of a doctor's frustration in treating Lia is apparent in the following excerpt:

Although, Lia's parents and her doctors both wanted what was best for Lia, lack of understanding led to tragedy. Anne Fadiman's book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, reveals how the inability to communicate and the ignorance of cultural differences pr!

have to offer them, because it intimates that what Western medicine has to

"Most Hmong believe that the body contains a finite amount of

The conflicting paradigms that each member of these relations brought to the interactions are at the core of these great misunderstandings. Each group holds their beliefs to be true. The Lees remained suspicious of American doctors and American doctors continued to consider the Hmong an ignorant and backward people. Along the way, there was a lack of trust and respect between the family and doctors, and both groups blamed each other for the tragic results-Lia's severe mental and physical disabilities.

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didn't understand about the soul" (Fadiman, 100).

offer is not much" (Fadiman, 76).

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Approximate Word count = 1347
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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