Read: Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

1. What are the Hmong conceptions of the body, soul or spirit? How does this relate to ideas about the cause of Lia's illness and the methods of healing?

2. What assumptions or biases do the medical practitioners carry with them into the clinical encounter with the Hmong?

3. Fadiman's description of Hmong history suggest that we need to understand that in order to understand what happens to Lia Lee. How and why?

4. What does Fadiman's book suggest about the difficulties of cross-cultural translation and understanding? Why are certain biomedical practices incomprehensible or offensive to the Hmong and vice-versa?

5. If the Merced Community Medical Center had followed the suggestions given by Arthur Kleinman to elicit the explanatory model of the Lees, do you think the outcome would have been any different? Why or why not?

Journal entry: Medicine and Belief, due in class on Friday, November 3.
Describe and analyze an illness episode in your or your family member's or close friend's life. What beliefs about medicine, sickness and health came into play? In light of Fadiman's book and our class discussions, what does this suggest to you about the relationship between biology and culture in conceptions of illness?

For more information, contact: aleshkow@holycross.edu