The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down Analysis

As I have studied Kleinman and his work I have began to shape the idea of illness and what it means to me. Illness is a social effect that can be viewed differently throughout the world through religion and culture, affecting more than just the patient involved. What may be dramatic in one country may be ordinary in another. As these illnesses are described to those in the medical field, they are categorized into disease. While the disease throughout the world remains the same, the illnesses in which make up this disease may vary. In The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman, we learn about the Lee family and how they respond to their daughter whom is suffering from epilepsy and the seizures it comes with. The treatment process they go through is affected by both their religion and culture, and is handled much differently than an American family …show more content…
The idea behind illness is different for everyone, depending on his or her beliefs. When the Lees’ daughter, Lia suffered her first seizure at three months, the Lee family instantly turned to religion. They believed that Yer, the older sister of Lia, slammed the door so forcefully that Lia’s spirit had been frightened out of her body and wondered off. The Lees believed that the symptoms that Lia was experiencing were a sign of quag dab peg which means the exiting of the soul of ones body. If one were to transfer the words quag dab peg to English it would read epilepsy . To the Lee family and their religious beliefs they believed that the epileptic fit that Lia was experiencing was from her soul leaving her body, to Americans the idea behind the seizure was much different (inside the body). The difference in belief backs up the idea that Kleinman presents to us through his work, on how illness is shaped differently throughout parts of the world, however the general idea of epilepsy remains the

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The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down Analysis