Organization 23. Literature & Language Assignment.

Organization 23
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Organization 23
The Hmong have an animistic belief system that informs their understanding of sickness and medication, unlike the western world, which understands medicine from a scientific perspective. They perceive illness as a supernatural event. Thus, for them, sickness is caused by spirits known as tlan. In the case of Lia Lee, the seizures that she was diagnosed with through western healthcare providers were referred to as ‘quag dabpeg’, which has some spiritual connotations within the community (Fadiman, 1997). They believed that seizures were as a result of the spirits catching her. The differences in culture manifested themselves in the treatment of Lia Lee’s condition, resulting in various disagreements between western physicians and Lia Lee’s parents (Fadiman, 1997). For example, Lia lee’s parents believed that the physicians were misguided, intrusive, a...