The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Science Quotes

Neil and Peggy have never met anybody like the Lees. Even their worst patients normally understand the importance of modern medicine. Not Nao Kao and Foua. They think that it's all a bunch of hogwash. In many ways, this is a Western doctor's worst nightmare.

American doctors have learned to compartmentalize their emotions, because otherwise they'd be unable to perform their emotionally draining job. It makes sense, but causes a great deal of tension with Hmong patients.

The older Hmong are extra hostile toward doctors. That being said, they're not entirely wrong—doctors perform a lot of experimentation to properly treat their patients. The only mistake in this case is assuming ill intent and seeing science as something to be feared. Not that it doesn't have that effect sometimes, but hey, give it a fighting chance.

Bet you haven't spent too much time contemplating the concept of the pancreas. But if you've taken high school Bio, you're probably a step ahead of the Hmong. And that complicates things a touch. Remember, the Hmong use tradition and spirituality to make sense of the world, rather than the scientific method. Sure, diagnosing diabetes takes the idea of the pancreas, but that doesn't diminish the value of the Hmong perspective. To ignore that view—no matter how irrational it might seem—is to make the same mistake that Lia's doctors make.

For their part, Merced's doctors are offended by the Hmong's distaste for science. In truth, they're being as closed-minded as the most anti-science Hmong by clinging to their own worldview because they feel threatened. Instead, they should take a page from Dwight Conquergood's playbook and figure out a better way to convey their scientific ideas to their patients. If only it were that easy.

If you didn't know much about science, this sort of stuff would really seem weird, right? Because they don't understand anything about Western medicine, Nao Kao and Foua see this as evidence of cold-hearted experimentation by evil-hearted doctors. Next step, set the table for brain stew.

Miraculously, Anne Fadiman finds a middle ground between the two perspectives. Naturally, she appreciates the power of science. She's grown up with it, after all. Despite this, she realizes that Hmong spirituality can reach certain truths that you'd miss out on by treating the scientific method like Holy Scripture.

Well that's no good. Lia's ordeal creates an even bigger rift between the Hmong and their doctors. Both sides now believe the worst of the other: that they're untrustworthy, selfish, and maybe a little stupid. Once again, we watch as both sides of the debate reduce the other to stereotypes with little resemblance to reality.

Let's back up a sec and remind ourselves that Cartesian has to do with René Descartes, the dude responsible for basically breaking philosophy way back in the 1600s with his thoughts on logic, the mind, and the body, and with gems like "I think, therefore I am." Fast-forward again. Logic isn't so valued much in Hmong culture. As it happens, it's also one of the key components to the scientific method, which, thanks partly to Descartes, has become pretty deeply ingrained in the Western mindset. Funny how that works out, huh? In the end, the Hmongs' resistance to Western medicine and science can be boiled down to this fact.

Though Anne remains deeply sympathetic toward the Hmong perspective, even she must admit that science can sometimes do the trick. In other words, she'd rather get treated by an M.D. than a txiv neeb.