The First Synthesis Essay : Examination Of Worldview

Throughout today’s society, media contributes to almost everyone’s daily life. From informative news channels to comical television shows, media proves to be effective in advertisement, releasing messages and informing the audience. Although media proves to be wildly effective in advertising, releasing messages and informing the audience, periodically destructive and misleading messages are provided to the audience and directly influencing women. Cultural critics widely agree that media tends to negatively influence women and all the critics point to research which supports the belief that women are portrayed as subordinate to men, having no

Anne Fadiman’s novel, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, addresses key concerns regarding health and medicinal relationships with cultural beliefs. She challenges readers to consider what is known about western medicinal practices and beliefs, based on science, and recognize its effectiveness when paired with cultural understanding. This novel portrays some of the greatest medicinal and health challenges and cultural failures of western societies. There were several cultural competency themes integrated throughout the book, however, it surprised me at how distant western practices and the Hmong’s healing methods were at the beginning. It seemed as if it would be a stretch to form a connection between these two extremities,

This perspective is harmful to patients in some ways. Specialists often just look inside their own parameter and do not consider other factors might be influencing illness. On the other hand, A Navajo healer will look for the imbalance. To a hataalii it is clear that everything affects everything else. The stress from disharmony can cause physical sickness, depression, even violence and death. . She said, “The Navajo view is macro view, whereas Western Medicine often takes a micro view” (Alvord, 1999, pg. 187). Thus she suggested that a doctor should no only cure but also heal by considering all factors in a patient’s life through holistic patient

It has recently been brought to my attention that our school is looking to adopt a sustainable menu into our meal program and I would like to give my viewpoint on the matter. As one many students here at Oxford Academy this change will affect me directly. Although people may at first oppose this conversion I think if we are able to overcome the first obstacles, this change would bring a great positive impact to the environment and the health of our students.

“Medicine was religion. Religion was society. Society was medicine” (Fadiman, 1997). To the Hmong’s, this is a way of life. Everything in their culture is interrelated and represents a holistic view. As Americans, we try to incorporate the holistic approach into our health care system, but heavily rely on medications and science to treat illness.

On the other hand, western medicine doctors diagnose the problem by observing the physical symptoms, screening the blood, and perform various other medical techniques that rely on advanced medical education and training. Doctors are concerned with the physical symptoms and disregard the “soul” which in turn conflicts with the Hmong culture because they believe in souls and higher mental processes. Fadiman’s proved that the central argument was the collision between the Hmong culture and the physical disease treatment of western medicine.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall down, by Anne Fadiman, illuminates the issues that arise when constructive collaboration cannot be accomplished between two conflicting parties. The conflict between Western beliefs and Hmong ideology is illuminated through a young epileptic Hmong named Lia Lee, and her tragic experience due to cultural differences. Ultimately, the conflict between parent and doctor beliefs thwarted medical advancement, eventually leaving her in a vegetative state and a premature death. In order to fully understand her predicament, we must establish the bounds of each culture. Largely defined by science, Western culture approaches things in technical terms, with decisions being based on measurable evidence. Western advocates argue that individuals must understand and accept scientific reality over their religious views. Non-Western beliefs, such as the Hmong culture, are largely defined by religion and pseudo-science practices. Those that oppose strict Western ideology, such as Francesca Farr, propose, “our view of reality is only a view, not reality itself” (p 276). In other words, reality is relative to the respective individual. Legitimate claims on both sides create a large grey area of misinterpretation. On the contrary, health does not have margin for misinterpretation. The lack of understanding can prevent Western doctors from providing certain aspects of treatment. Even worse, the patient may reject treatment entirely. This dilemma in cultural

Many Alaskan Natives and Native Indians, also known as American Indians, share the same or similar views on health and medicine. Their definition of “traditional medicine” incorporates medicine and religion, various chants and rituals, and being one with Earth (Broome, B., Broome, R., 2007). “In the United States we are challenged to think about health care from our tradition as a cultural melting pot. Therefore, we must address the large range of individual health care needs from populations living the inner-city and suburbia to those in rural environments.” (O 'Brien, Anslow, Begay, Pereira, & Sullivan, 2002). It is important for healthcare workers to understand the views of American Indians in order to integrate their traditional medicine as well as western medicine. Examining areas such as common health conditions, treatments, and attitudes towards health, natural and alternative health will lead to a better capability of providing culturally competent care.

“In the Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down”, Anne Fadiman explores the subject of cross cultural misunderstanding. This she effectively portrays using Lia, a Hmong, her medical history, the misunderstandings created by obstacles of communication, the religious background, the battle with modernized medical science and cultural anachronisms. Handling an epileptic child, in a strange land in a manner very unlike the shamanistic animism they were accustomed to, generated many problems for her parents. The author dwells on the radically different cultures to highlight the necessity for medical communities to have an understanding of the immigrants when treating them.

The United States is known for its melting pot of cultures, which creates one of the most contentious issues in the medical world which is the clash of cultures. The book we read “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” is a great example of how a miss communication and struggle between cultures which lead to a very dismal end. The difference in beliefs cause constant issues in communication, even though both want what is best.

This book addresses one of the common characteristics, and challenges, of health care today: the need to achieve a working knowledge of as many cultures as possible in health care. The Hmong population of Merced, California addresses the collision between Western medicine and holistic healing traditions of the Hmong immigrants, which plays out a common dilemma in western medical centers: the need to integrate modern western medicinal remedies with aspects of cultural that are good for the well-being of the patient, and the belief of the patient’s ability to recuperate. What we see is a clash, or lack of integration in the example of the story thereof. Lia, a

In the book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, it addresses one of the more common challenges and characteristics of health care today: the demand of working with as many cultures as possible to meet the demands that our country has. The Hmong population of California where the family is residing addresses the collision between western medicine and traditional healing practices of the Hmong immigrants. There are so many different cultures residing amongst us in the United States today and we need to be able to cater to all cultures not just the most abundant one. What we see is a barrier, or lack of combination in the example of the story by Anne Fadiman. In the book, Lia, a Hmong child with a rare form of epilepsy, must enter the

Families around the world all have different beliefs and religions that they follow. Some move to America just so they can give their families a better life, but that doesn’t mean that they leave behind the traditions that they followed. It just makes it difficult sometimes for them adjusting to the American ways compared to how they were used too back in their country. Especially when it comes down to how people get sick and how they are treated so that they can get better. Here we discuss about the Hmong culture and how there’s a difference with how they heal people compared to how it’s done in America. Healing someone can be through medicine or any type of treatment from some kind of doctor or as the Hmong heal, they use a shaman. A shaman is a person with a

People of the Chinese culture have many different beliefs and practices of medicine and healthcare. It is extremely important for nurses to be culturally competent and to be able to understand different practices and beliefs of different cultures to ensure that they are providing the best care and making their patients as comfortable as possible. According to Shih-Yu Lee, ritual is defined as “a social essential collective activity within a culture,” it is also well recognized that culture and ritual plays a fundamental role in “defining, sensing the health and illness, and searching help for problems” (Shih-Yu, Shu-Ling, and Yu-O, 2013). There are many rituals and beliefs of traditional Chinese medicine that are crucial to understand, the

Our group chose ethnomedicine for our digital poster, bringing together the topics of neo-shamanism, organ transplants in biomedical organ transplants, Ayurveda, and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). In discussing potential intersectionality between our areas of interest, we quickly recognized a continuum that placed biomedicine—as a mechanistically informed approach focusing on individuals and pathologies—on one end of the spectrum, and shamanism—with its focus on the ‘unseen’ aspects of existence and the vital connection of all life forms (fig. 4)—at the other. The highly systemized nature of TCM and its emphasis on the mechanisms of physiology, pathologies and the anatomical system placed it next to biomedicine on the continuum; Ayurveda was closest to shamanism in our assessment, due to a more explicit acknowledgment of the interaction between the mental, personality and physical aspects of health. While this provided a base of comparison, we struggled with creating a theme that could portray the idea in a meaningful way—why is this continuum from biomechanical to spiritual important? How does it impact the lives of human beings? It was upon reflection on the mind/body dichotomy that we glimpsed insight suitable for a narrative; playing on the concept of body parts (fig. 1) in light of Jonathan’s focus on transplants, Kalycia brought up Frankenstein.