The spirit catches you and you fall down : a Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures
(Book)

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Published
New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.
ISBN
0374525641, 9780374525644
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LocationCall NumberStatus
Glenside Public Library District - Nonfiction306.461 FadOn Shelf
Itasca Community Library - Nonfiction306.461 FADChecked out
National University of Health Sciences - StacksWL 385 F145s 1998On Shelf
Prairie State College - StacksRA418.5.T73 F33On Shelf
Riverside Public Library - Stacks306.461 FADOn Shelf
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Published
New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.
Format
Book
Physical Desc
ix, 341 pages, 7 unnumbered pages ; 22 cm
Language
English
ISBN
0374525641, 9780374525644

Notes

General Note
"Reader's guide": p. [343]-[348].
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages [313]-326) and index.
Description
When three-month-old Lia Lee arrived at the county hospital emergency room in Merced, California, a chain of events was set in motion from which neither she nor her parents nor her doctors would ever recover. Lia's parents, Foua and Nao Kao, were part of a large Hmong community in Merced, refugees from the CIA-run "Quiet War" in Laos. The Hmong, traditionally a close-knit people, have been less amenable to assimilation than most immigrants, adhering steadfastly to the rituals and beliefs of their ancestors. Lia's pediatricians, Neil Ernst and his wife, Peggy Philip, cleaved just as strongly to another tradition: that of Western medicine. When Lia Lee entered the American medical system, diagnosed as an epileptic, her story became a tragic case history of cultural miscommunication. Parents and doctors both wanted the best for Lia, but their ideas about the causes of her illness and its treatment could hardly have been more different. The Hmong see illness and healing as spiritual matters linked to virtually everything in the universe, while medical community marks a division between body and soul, and concerns itself almost exclusively with the former. Lia's doctors ascribed her seizures to the misfiring of her cerebral neurons; her parents called her illness, qaug dab peg--the spirit catches you and you fall down--and ascribed it to the wandering of her soul. The doctors prescribed anticonvulsants; her parents preferred animal sacrifices.
Awards
National Book Critics Circle award

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Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Fadiman, A. (1998). The spirit catches you and you fall down: a Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures (First paperback edition.). Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Fadiman, Anne, 1953-. 1998. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Fadiman, Anne, 1953-. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Fadiman, Anne. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures First paperback edition., Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

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