Book Review
The Book is basically detailed in defining the two different perspectives of two different cultures in medical sense of being. The first culture is about US biomedicine and how the medication affects people as well as how it can be used as a form of social control. The other perspective includes the Hmong perspective which is entirely about spiritual causes and other causes that are not related to biomedical performances or the concept of biomedical healing. The book is excellent in terms of how it defines the distant gap between the two cultures and uses Lia, a Hmong child, as a bridge between the two gaps so as to dictate what the book really emphasizes upon. The book is also brief in how it describes the concepts of curing, health and medicine in terms of illnesses and other medical terminologies.
Hmong is a minority group which is particularly brought up from South Asian descent and most of this group consists of residents of Laos, Cambodia and other nearby places that fled to the United States of America as a means to escape the Vietnam War and its several atrocities. Before the arrival to The United States of America, the Hmong culture had never come in contact with the US biomedical culture and felt estranged to it when they were first introduced to this culture in the 1950s. Anne, having witnessed this gap up close, wrote this book upon her experience with Lia, a Hmong child that was the main subject of a controversial conflict between both Hmong tribes, which included her parents, as well as the Us Biomedical insurgents or in other words, the medical personnel of local hospitals who wanted to treat the child in their own way.
Lia, being a Hmong child, came across an illness of severe epileptic disorder that caused her to function abnormally at a very young age. Instead of being treated immediately, her parents, according to the Hmong culture, believed that she had done something wrong to the family name and had offended her ancestors otherwise she was getting ill over time as a shaman, a spiritual spirit in Hmong culture, or an old ancestor was unhappy with her acts that she had committed in secrecy. As this was the belief of Hmong culture, they thought that if Lia began to right her wrongs, she would get better without any medical help . Anne explicitly writes in her book about the conditions that Lia had faced during the time that Anne was looking over the entire matter and understands that Lia was in trouble as her parents were unwilling to get her treated with biomedical help, which they saw as a form of social control and ill-mannered tempering with nature’s order.
Moreover, Lia had managed to portray the most accurate conditions that Lia was facing and this can be accepted in all aspects as Anne was present during the critical gap and conflict of interest between Lia’s Hmong parents and the American medical staff. When Lia’s health worsened, her parents had to take Lia to a hospital reluctantly and that is where they found out that she was in severe distress. She was given better medication and prescriptions to make her pain go away but this was seen as an offensive move from the American medical staff by the Hmong parents of Lia as Anne reports in her book. She says that this caused a wide drift between the two different cultures and exposed the differences that the Hmong medical perspectives contain as well as the perspectives that the American biomedical culture contains . Furthermore, it was also disclosed that the Hmong culture did not believe much in biomedical outlines and treatments and that may explain what Anne perceived to be negligence and shock as well as denial all combined into one element that forced the Hmong parents of Lia from restraining her to use the US biomedical medicines and treatments on herself. While this behaviour enraged the Biomedical staff as Anne noticed and documented in her book, she also said that the Hmong tribe’s members encouraged the resistance that was shown by Hmong’s parents over their restriction of using American biomedical treatments and prescriptions.
Anne noticed and elaborated that suddenly, it was not about Lia at all and rather it was about the indifferences between two entirely different cultures, one which relied on scientific procedures and benefits of science while the other, which relied on spiritual guidance and meditation as well as self-healing. However, as Lia’s conditioned worsened to a fatal extent, her parents realized that they had no other choice but to give American Biomedical treatments a chance. Furthermore, they denied any further help from the medical staff and Anne notes that once the healing process had begun, the Hmong parents encouraged Lia to apply spiritual medication in order to heal herself more quickly and without the control of medicines as they perceived it to be a form of social control.
Anne also noted the similarities between a medical doctor and a Shaman as they both had similar characteristics. Anne perceived a doctor to be someone who directed attendees within a hospital and how the doctors would lead the entire team of medical staff towards treating a patient while the Shaman was the leader within a Hmong tribe and would dictate every step as well as every rule that was established within the particular Hmong clan. Every Hmong clan has a Shaman that supervises all Hmong activities in that certain clan just like a doctor controls and supervises all medical treatments that take place between his patients and his personal medical team.
Furthermore, Anne also derives the concept of medicine being seen as a form of social control throughout her book through the perspective of the Hmong tribe as she notices the reactions of denial and rejection from Lia, the sick child’s parents, in the very beginning of her treatment prescriptions. Anne also notes that the Hmong see medicine as a form of social control as they see the persuasion of taking medical pills as a form of order and not advice. When Lia is subjected to multiple tests and treatments with a forceful push from the medical staff as well as Lia’s doctor towards Lia’s parents, it can be seen that the parents are driven into conforming to the situation just like a form of social control is meant to conform individuals within the society.
Over all, Lia’s experience is definitely shared throughout the book while the difference between two drastic cultures are also explained in brief detail and told with extraordinary perspectives from an author and narrator that has been present in all circumstances along with Lia and noticed the situation as a person who does not have a biased view on the entire situation.
Works Cited
Fadiman, Anne. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. 2012.
