The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down ' : Book Analysis

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, portrays two themes. First, the text refers to Hmong history and the destabilization of the region of Vietnam forcing Hmong refugees to migrate to other parts of the world but mostly the United States. Within the text is another story of a Hmong refugee family and their daughter named Lia Lee who settle in Merced California. Lia is tormented by a misfortunate diagnosis of epilepsy and faced by cultural inequality by her American doctors. Health care providers wrote Lia Lee off as a complex patient with severe communication barriers. Almost all of her admission notes contained the phrase” language barrier” (Fadiman, 2012). As she bounced back and forth between healthcare providers within the Emergency Room and pediatric visits, her doctor, Neil Ernst concurs that her parents are responsible for the communication barrier and non-compliance with prescribed treatment. Dr. Ernst deemed this as neglect and had Lia placed in a foster home but after being separated from the only people she knew, her conditioned rapidly deteriorated. Her seizures progressed in intensity and duration until one

Compromise. The word is taught and used at a very young age. As life goes on, one hears it more often than not, but what does the word truly mean? In the medical field, this word is one that tends to be avoided. Due to America being so “Americanized,” some individuals may not accommodate to those who have a very distinctive culture, especially if the culture is nothing like the American culture. However as a doctor, the obligation to compromise without putting the patient’s wellbeing at risk is nonnegotiable. The doctor has to find middle ground that everyone can agree on, even if that means forcing the American culture upon them. In The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, the privileged, accepted, American culture

While having empathy is an exceptional quality, it has limitations. In Limits of Empathy, by Adam Waytz, he points out that though empathy can be a powerful tool in understanding another person’s experiences, it also has limits. He begins his article with introducing empathy as the topic of interest today. Through the use of an empathy belly and the age suit, Waytz discusses how these exercises are used in Ford Motor Company to get the perspective of a pregnant woman or an elderly person who has to drive. Whether or not these exercises actually help the company is unclear he states, but empathy has proven to be a focus of improvement all around us. Waytz states that research conducted suggests that the commotion about empathy is too intense,

Empathy is to feel and understand someone else’s pain, nonetheless it is not as simple as it seems. Leslie Jamison’s essay, The Empathy Exam describes her experience as a medical actor while putting herself into the patients’ shoes by associating her background. Jamison exemplifies her story in an almost journal like form sharing each incident one by one and linking them together. She simply begins by elucidating the general knowledge of her occupation to involve the readers so they can understand her emotions and follow along attentively. Stephanie Phillips is the role she took upon for the exam and having experienced the same situations Jamison introduces the concern about empathy and what empathy truly is. She searches for her own personal definition of empathy and what it is like to have and want empathy throughout

I completely agree with you! Society as a whole needs to stop being judgmental, but after reading The Spirit Catches You And You Fall down, it is obvious that the many people in the medical field do not have enough cultural compassion and therefore makes it difficult to properly treat patients whom are not of American customs. People seek out doctors for help so whenever doctors fail to comply it is reasonable to understand why certain people would rather not seek doctors in times of need. The book made it evident that doctors should be more understanding of cultures in order to sustain a mutual understanding with patients.

Problem solver’s empathy decreases with patients eventually. Empathy demonstrates core professional values which are essential but, because of working hard, stress and level of burnout among caregivers or problem solvers. Lack of empathy becomes obvious in comparison with expected percentage of side effects of this position before recruiting. So, caregivers or problem solvers should start care more about their own physical health, social life, and emotional well-being, so they start taking care of their essential

In the first chapter of our book, Batson introduces the seeming complexity of empathy as he lays out eight different uses of the word empathy (Decety & Ickes, 2009). However, later in the book, Rogers expresses the simplicity of empathy in his observation of the healing power from just the intense presence of a therapist (Decety & Ickes, 2009). It seems easy to get lost in the terms and definitions of empathy. We read terms such as “grasp”, “sort through”, & “resonance” and can become overwhelmed about the

Dr. Gilbert’s first head position came in the year nineteen ninety-nine as St. Claude Medical Center’s Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Gilbert would have an immense up hill battle ahead as the new leader of his hospital that was extremely poor in it’s ability to take care of it’s patients. Additionally, all but one physician terminated their employment at St. Claude due to all of this the government was getting ready to close down the hospital. This bleak situation would make even a veteran C.E.O. shudder, let alone a rookie C.E.O. However, according to Dr. Gilbert, “I was to stupid to know better to take on a job of this magnitude.” After three long years of treating mainly patients of violent crimes, infectious diseases and effects of extreme poverty St. Claude became a successful hospital and exceeded all regularity requirements while giving treatment to Ninth Ward residents, which is a well known impoverished area filled with high criminal activity. Dr. Gilbert would sell his hospital after his three years of ownership and continue his career as a C.E.O. in Indiana.

Additionally, in this clinical rotation I learned that, by being empathy to the patient, is a cognitive rather than emotional, in trying to understand a patient’s experience and communicate concept in which helping an individual attempts to perceive the world from the patient’s point of view in a way that impart recognition of patient concerns and perspective. The power of presence is also powerful therapy for the patient, when patient need to talk to and understand them and their situation in a non-judgmental

Nevertheless, empathy helps people communicate their ideas in a way that makes sense to them, and it helps people understand others when they communicate. Empathy is one of the foundational building blocks of great social interaction. Nonetheless, the critical consciousness challenges social workers to be aware of power differentials and how these differentials may inadvertently make social work practice

Nurses with empathy tend to understand and communicate with their patients more effectively. Communication in the medical field provides a sense of relief to the understanding of patients of all ages, mind-sets, medical conditions, co-workers and their families. When empathy is shown through body language, tone of voice or facial expression it benefits the communication with all different situations for a more effective work place. Empathy also shows family members you care about the patient; answering questions and putting their needs first are strong in all scenarios (Brown, 2014). Showing someone you truly care does help reassure patients and family makes healing and/or coping process easier (Stein-Parbury, 2005).

Learning these type of empathy will save your life and it can give a life lesson from it learning how to do understand a patient’s pain, good communication and along with having the ability to treat others

A main component of empathy is the ability to put yourself in another person’s shoes. Being able to do so is not an easy task, however, it is more obtainable when you have faced a similar issue. In a 2015 study done at Berkley University researchers, Daniel Lim and David DeSteno, gathered participants, from all walks of life, and gave them surveys to fill out that would measure their empathy. After the surveys, the researchers had the participants talk about their hardships and trauma, then gave them the option to donate money to the Red Cross. After the study concluded the data showed that “…

In conclusion, empathy is a very powerful word and work that should be more noticed, no matter what field it’s presented in. The word is abused often; we use it loosely without understanding its true meaning or confusing it with sympathy. Empathy is not agreeing with the client but rather understanding their situation, thoughts and feelings. Seeing where the client’s perception is without holding the same perspective. The ability to simply listen to understand the client brings us closer in a client-therapist relationship, rather than separating us. Carl Rogers did a great job in demonstrating this in his client-center therapy approach, where he highlight that the focus is the client and therapist is there to provide unconditional support.

Empathy is an important tool in all parts of life, both personally and professionally. Empathy is both a tool and a state of mind, which allows us to understand other people’s points of view. By using empathy, we can better understand the people around us, weather they are friends or clients. Many jobs rely on using empathy to connect with their clients, whether they be Doctors or work in advertising, being able to understand the feeling, fears, and points of view of other people is imperative in the world of business. Without empathy it’s hard to from connections with people, and you can come off as cold and unpleasant to work with. The job that I am currently studying for, psychologist, forming connections using empathy is a basic and crucial