Anne Fadiman Psychology
Michelle Zepeda
Rohrbacher
English 101
March 1, 2011
Divine Calling or Serious Disorder
Treatment is care provided to improve a situation, especially medical procedures or applications that are intended to relieve illness or injury. In the Hmong society, people go to a txiv neeb, a shaman, who is believed to be a “person with a healing spirit” (Fadiman, 1997, p. 21) to cure their illnesses. A txiv neeb knows that to cure an illness you must treat the soul, in addition to the body. This is important to the Hmong because in their society the soul has a great deal of importance. In Anne Fadiman`s The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, the Lees, a family of Hmong refugees from Laos, are placed in a difficult situation when their three …show more content…
When Lia continues to have frequent seizures while being on the medication her doctors start prescribing other medication for a less serious type of seizure. When this change in medication doesn't improve Lia`s seizures, her doctor starts prescribing her multiple drugs simultaneously for the seizures plus antibiotics, antihistamines, and bronchodilating drugs due to the lung and ear infections frequently accompanied by seizures (Fadiman, p. 46). “These medications were prescribed in varying combinations, varying amounts, and varying numbers of times a day, the prescription changed twenty-three times in less than four years.’’ (Fadiman, p. 46). This quickly got confusing to Lia`s parents because due to the language barrier they were not instructed correctly on how to give Lia the correct dosages. Even if someone were present to translate instructions when a bottle was handed to Lia`s parents there was no way of knowing that they would remember them and since the prescription frequently changed it would have been difficult for even a English speaking parent to follow correctly. (Fadiman, p. 46) When doctors begin to notice that the seizures are still occurring they start thinking about the possibility that Lia`s parents were either confused or lying about the medication and ultimately the problem was both. (Fadiman, p. 47-48) The Lee`s would give Lia incorrect drugs because they were being stored in medicine bottles with incorrect names. They would also fail to give Lia the correct dosages because some medication needed to be measured or cut into fractions (Fadiman, p. 47). The Lee`s were also knowingly not giving Lia her medication because they didn't believe that she needed to be on it due
Rohrbacher
English 101
March 1, 2011
Divine Calling or Serious Disorder
Treatment is care provided to improve a situation, especially medical procedures or applications that are intended to relieve illness or injury. In the Hmong society, people go to a txiv neeb, a shaman, who is believed to be a “person with a healing spirit” (Fadiman, 1997, p. 21) to cure their illnesses. A txiv neeb knows that to cure an illness you must treat the soul, in addition to the body. This is important to the Hmong because in their society the soul has a great deal of importance. In Anne Fadiman`s The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, the Lees, a family of Hmong refugees from Laos, are placed in a difficult situation when their three …show more content…
When Lia continues to have frequent seizures while being on the medication her doctors start prescribing other medication for a less serious type of seizure. When this change in medication doesn't improve Lia`s seizures, her doctor starts prescribing her multiple drugs simultaneously for the seizures plus antibiotics, antihistamines, and bronchodilating drugs due to the lung and ear infections frequently accompanied by seizures (Fadiman, p. 46). “These medications were prescribed in varying combinations, varying amounts, and varying numbers of times a day, the prescription changed twenty-three times in less than four years.’’ (Fadiman, p. 46). This quickly got confusing to Lia`s parents because due to the language barrier they were not instructed correctly on how to give Lia the correct dosages. Even if someone were present to translate instructions when a bottle was handed to Lia`s parents there was no way of knowing that they would remember them and since the prescription frequently changed it would have been difficult for even a English speaking parent to follow correctly. (Fadiman, p. 46) When doctors begin to notice that the seizures are still occurring they start thinking about the possibility that Lia`s parents were either confused or lying about the medication and ultimately the problem was both. (Fadiman, p. 47-48) The Lee`s would give Lia incorrect drugs because they were being stored in medicine bottles with incorrect names. They would also fail to give Lia the correct dosages because some medication needed to be measured or cut into fractions (Fadiman, p. 47). The Lee`s were also knowingly not giving Lia her medication because they didn't believe that she needed to be on it due