Episode 36. Transcultural Epilepsy with Anne Fadiman – Author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

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 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, ...