Cultural Contrast in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down - Case Study Example

1) Cultural Contrast The doctors in Anne Fadiman’s “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” exhibit an M-Time culture while the Lees are a P-Time culture. This is because the doctors are conscious of time when attempting to explain the Lees’ perceptions of an illness, epilepsy1. The Lees are calm about their own who are epileptic since they consider the condition a blessed ability to communicate with supernatural beings. According to Hmong tradition, epilepsy is “qaug dab peg,” which translates to a spirit that “catches” a person and he or she falls down2. This defition of the spectacle is different from the American doctors who view it rationally as an illness or symptom in some cases. These are characteristics of polychronicity and monochronicity cultures by the doctors and the Lees respectively. Fadiman writes that the basis for the Hmong’s sacred beliefs is that good and evil spirits are all around us. As a result, the Lees see epileptic seizures as a person’s capacity to join the supernatural world briefly, which is honorable since communicating with spirits is a notable quality for an M-Time culture like the Lees. Language styles exhibited by the Lees and doctors to explain their understanding and knowledge of the ordeal Lia was undergoing reveal both cultures low and high contexts respectively. Developed by anthropologist Edward Hall, low and high context models for cultural comparison and contrast suitable explain the Lees and doctors perceptions of the Lia’s ordeal as much as the P-Time and M-Time models. Through low and high context models, readers can understand the concept that language affects the insights and thoughts of doctors and the Lees, being groups of people from different communities. As a result, both groups respond different behaviorally. More specifically, the Lees lack a formal word for “epilepsy.” Rather, the Hmong generally relate the illness’s key symptoms to the animistic perceptions of the world by the Lees that act as a philosophical, sacred, and divine manual to living one’s life. For the Lees, the best way to explain Lia’s epileptic spasms associates with supernatural phenomenon3. In a high context society, the opposite is true where logic, practicality, and objectivity are the bases for living, which is where the doctors come from. On the other hand, a low context society lets culture explain things or events that members of this society cannot otherwise rationalize. In the text, the Lees are unaware of the influence their spiritual and religious beliefs have had on their view of Lia’s condition until they interact with the doctors. 2) Power Structures The power relationship between the doctors and the Lees expresses dynamics of misrepresentation for immigrants in a completely different society. The lees represent a conventional healthcare system that entails the shamanic handling of an array of souls or self-substances called “plig” or “ntsuj.4” This system strives to accept a system of bio-medication founded on essentially different ontological virtues, which the doctors represent. Immigration causes misrepresentation for the Lees through linguistic barriers. The changing aspects of power in the doctor-patient relationship can lead readers to find motivation in the Lees commitment to a seriously sick child. Doctors gain an advantage over the Lees because of the Lees’ low context society and perceptions of Americans garnered from the many disturbing stories they had heard about them. These stories range from American physicians taking blood from patients, removing organs to sell or exchange them, to sedating then treating or cutting them open5. In the course of Lia’s treatment, Fadiman insufficiently examines the presumptions and views presented to the doctor-patient relations. Doctors frequently exploit of their powerful places, which causes trust and respect between them and the Lees diminishes over time6. The book is right to examine how both parties blame each other for the disastrous result that is Lia’s acute psychological and physical incapacities. For instance, the Lees argue that the human body has a limited amount of blood that is irreplaceable. As a result, the physicians should not be quick to drain and replace blood from Lia. At the same time, putting Lia under anesthesia frees her soul temporarily and causes her to be ill and extremely vulnerable to death7. These beliefs clearly make redefining medical terminology an essential measure for the doctors. The power relationship between the doctors and the Lees show when moral intents quit being supportive and begin justifying exploitation, misuse of power, dishonesty, and misrepresentation against immigrants. 3) Intervention If anything were done differently in the novel, its account of Lia’s experiences with two different societies would not present a fair account. The attribution of Lia’s sickness to the soul’s liberation from the physical body and loss to a malignant spirit by her relatives is comprehensive. A fright caused by Lia’s prevention of the birth of her older sister relates to her relative’s efforts to cure her through shamanistic interventions. These interventions call for animal sacrifice and tribal rituals that are not practiced anymore in the new society they migrate to8. The revelation of a society that heavily depends on medicine balances the Lees’ animistic beliefs. The suspense of Lia’s risky health, the understanding depiction of her parents and doctors, and particularly the understandings of the Lees beliefs, make Fadiman’s work a worthy reading. This empathetic and considerate description provides adequate cultural insight of the Hmong and Americans through fair representation of the natures of both parties. For example, the doctors constantly failed to explain their purposes and interventions in the sense that the Lees could know and come to terms with. This insight leads to the Lee’s rising mistrust of the American healthcare system and their continued usage of conventional Hmong therapies along with her prescribed medicine9. 4) Conclusion Carrying out this assignment has reinforced my understanding of culture differences and the application of anthropological models by experts Hall and Hofstede. Fadiman’s narrative provides a nuanced, beautiful, understanding description of the medical case of Lia Lee seen from two different societies that sheds light on the course concepts. The assignment reveals a clash of conventional beliefs and western civilizational progress, personal and formal ethnic discrimination and authoritarianism, physical autonomy and child rights, and destructive effects of culture shock. Additionally, the doctors and Lees have provided real examples of Hall’s models of societies, which include P-Time, M-Time, and high and low contexts cultures. The relationship between both parties has helped me grasp the consequences of the erosion of freedom, identity and hope because of cultural differences. Bibliography Fadiman, Anne, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (New York), Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997. Read More