I am joined in this podcast by Anne Fadiman to discuss her classical book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, her account of the cross-cultural conflicts between a Hmong family and the American medical system. The book won a National Book Critics Circle Award, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and a Salon Book Award.

Published in 1997, the book has attained classic status within medicine. Its contents and lessons remain relevant for contemporary medical practice, and this is why I listed it amongst the important book’s this podcast explores.

Anne Fadiman is Professor in the Practice of Creative Writing, and Francis Writer-in-Residence at Yale University. The former editor of The American Scholar and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Fadiman is also the author of two essay collections, Ex Libris and At Large and At Small, and a memoir, The Wine Lover’s Daughter.

Anne explored the tragedy that evolved when Hmong refugees in the United States interacted with their health centre. At the centre of the saga is their young daughter with refractory epilepsy. Anne explores the transcultural failures that marred the interactions between the two sides, and almost fatally compromised the girl’s life.

Watch it on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/VCxEUFQUz9A

Listen to it on Spotify:


https://open.spotify.com/episode/3Q5V60DsL17QwDxmD2k3Gr

Listen to it on RSS feed
 


https://rss.com/podcasts/theneurologylounge/1725982/

Listen to it on Apple podcasts https://tinyurl.com/yczfheuw

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