Reference no: EM133239318
Assignment:
Once you have read and discussed The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, a reflection on the piece. Your entry should be written in complete sentences Be thoughtful with your reflection, as it will be graded on how well you engage with the materials and how much critical thinking you put into your response.
Throughout The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, we have seen issues of seemingly insurmountable language barriers, a breakdown of trust between providers and patients, and a failure of these individuals to compromise or even learn about the Lees' understanding of the body, health, and healing. This disconnect occurs, Fadiman suggests, because of a lack of "cultural competency" on the part of the Merced doctors. The story of Lia Lee is one that shows us how powerfully culture impacts health and how complicated cross-cultural medicine in the United States is.
Review p. 277 and consider the different perspectives Bill and Sukey have on Lia's case, and health more broadly.
(1) How do Bill and Sukey's opposing views demonstrate the complicated relationship between culture and health?
(2) In what ways does this conversation illustrate the need for cultural competency training in biomedicine?
(3) How does their conversation complicate the idea of "do no harm" in medicine? What harms are at stake here?
(4) Who do you tend to side with in this argument on the life or the soul, based on what you have read in Spirit-- Bill or Sukey? How do you feel your perspective is informed by your own cultural upbringing?
(5) "Is there any way Lia's story could have ended differently? How so?
After you are done watch Healers of Ghana and answer the following questions:
What are the two categories of Bono healers and why does the community need two different types of healers? In addition to providing treatment and catching witches, what other purposes do their ceremonies fulfill? For example, how do ceremonies provide practitioners with power? How does this compare with biomedical treatments and their 'ceremonies'?