The
Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American
Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. The first segment of the
title describes epilepsy described in
Hmong; the subordinate clause overviews
the storyline
– the conflict between the immigrant culture and the dominant
institutions.
Brigham
introduced me and I chose to read given
3 yrs intensive + 6 yrs
active
involvement with the Minnesota Laotian community; added
upon with 4
years intense Haitians in Florida. Sherwin
Nuland said of the account, "There are no villains in Fadiman's
tale, just as there are no heroes. People are presented as she saw
them, in their humility and their frailty--and their nobility."
Its a tragedy of
epic proportion. People who have life and death needs to successfully
communicate never effectively succeed; instead
they build
fences where
bridges are
needed.
All
who interact with differing
cultures
benefit from learning to listen with perspective of understanding the
foundation of differences and the possibilities of commonalities.
Page
261
“If you can’t see that your own culture has
its own set of interest emotions and biases how can you expect to be
a successful with someone else’s culture”
If the first encounter between Lees
and the doctors had asked a different set of questions and trust each
other; results might’ve been different.
The following are examples of questions that might
be extrapolated to other situations – not the exact same questions
for yours.
1 – What do you call the problem
2 – What do you think has caused the problem
3 – Why do you think it started when it did
4 – What do you think this sickness does; how
does it work
5 – How severe is the sickness will it have a
short term and long term effect
6 – What kind of treatment do you think the
patient should receive what are the most important result you hope
she receives from the treatment
7- What are the chief problem is the sickness has
caused
8 – What do you fear most about the sickness
Upon
reflection I realized my first
relevant experience went
back to when I was 18-21.
My
first college roommate was
a great
guy from Calgary Alberta Canada. His family very much like mine -
demographics, education, religion,
financial and social orientation. He
was definitely more like me than the other dorm
freshmen from Idaho and Utah. With
the latter
there was a cultural gap but
my perception of Canadians they
were
very much like me. So I assumed
that
most people in Quebec Canada will
be
like my roommate from Alberta Canada. Perception and my
understanding
of
Canadians
remembered
experience in college burst when
I had a Quebecois
companion - we
couldn’t be more different : raised in an orphanage, private
Catholic school, very poor, uneducated and illiterate. Those
externals were the tip of the iceberg of differences in culture and
lifestyle. In my case uncovering my assumptions led to an entire
fresh view of Quebecois and Canadians.
The
book is from 1997, the
lessons are
too late for Lia
and those
Hmong among us then, but now? For you, and me, perhaps we can learn
and improve how we interact, perceive, (judge?) but definitely accept
and understand. Read the book if you need clear illustration of the
issues, gaffes and gaps that can be created in
cultures coming together.
