“If you can’t see that your own culture has its own set of interests, emotions, and biases, how can you expect to deal successfully with someone else’s culture?” (Kleinman in Fadiman 1997, p.261).
This is a story of Lia Lee, a Hmong child, and her fight with epilepsy or what her culture calls “the spirit catches you and you fall down”. This book tells the story of cultural misunderstanding between the Merced county hospital in Los Angles and a young Hmong family, refugees from the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic. The different understandings of the disease Lia suffered caused confusion, anger, angst and heartache for both the family and the medical staff in charge of Lia.
I read this book for a third year anthropology subject ’Illness and Healing’ and it contributed to the start of a very important learning curve for me in regard to cross-cultural awareness and understanding. Lia and her family have a holistic mind, body and soul approach to health that clashes with a Western medical approach of preserving life.
It left me thinking is the main aim in life to stay alive? and can I accept that for others, a larger religious or spiritual connect is more important even if that means dying?
A fantastic book that will challenge your world view.
