Victoria Sweet

Victoria Sweet is an American physician, author and advocate for what is termed "slow medicine". She is also a historian of medicine who has studied the writings of Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th century German abbess and medical therapist.

Biography

Early life

Victoria Sweet was born in Los Angeles, California. Her ancestors came to California from Germany in 1836.[1]

Education

As an undergraduate she studied at Stanford University,[2] where she majored in mathematics, with a minor in the Classics.[3] She received her MD degree (1977) from the University of California Irvine School of Medicine.[4][5] She received an M.A. (1995) and a Ph.D. (2003), both degrees in History of Health Sciences, from the University of California, San Francisco.[6]

Work as medical historian

Sweet's doctorate study was based on the medical treatise of Hildegard of Bingen, written in Latin, entitled Causae et Curae ("Causes and Cures"). Sweet draws special attention to Hildegard's use of the word viriditas. It comes from the Latin word for "green," and was used to refer to the color of plants, as well as meaning "vigor" and "youthfulness." Sweet points out how Hildegard also used the word viriditas in the broader sense of the power of plants to put forth leaves and fruit, and the analogous intrinsic power of human beings to grow and to heal.[7] Inspired by Hildegard, Sweet began to ask herself as she was treating her patients whether anything was interfering with the viriditas or the intrinsic power to heal—to relate to healing like being a gardener who removes impediments and nourishes, in a sanctuary-like setting.[8]

Views on medicine

During the 1990s and first decade of the 21st century, while obtaining her doctorate in medical history, Sweet was also working as an internal medicine physician at the old Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco. In the year 2010 a new hospital facility was built and repurposed. The old Laguna Honda Hospital was a long-term treatment and rehabilitation hospital. She describes the old hospital as being the last "almshouse" in America.

The conjunction of studying the healing philosophy of Hildegard of Bingen along with working at the old Laguna Honda Hospital helped Dr. Sweet formulate principles of what she refers to as "slow medicine". Dr. Sweet says that "sick people need time...and their doctors do too....Doctors need time to sit with their patients, to think, to read, to consult, to catch their mistakes." [9]


Published works
  • Slow Medicine: The Way to Healing (2017), Riverhead Books (Penguin).
  • God's Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine (2013), Riverhead Books (Penguin).
  • Rooted in the Earth, Rooted in the Sky: Hildegard of Bingen and Premodern Medicine (Studies in Medieval History and Culture) (2006), Routledge.

Honors, decorations, awards and distinctions

Guggenheim Fellowship for 2014-2015 in the category of Creative Arts, General Non-fiction[10]

See also

References
  1. "San Francisco Examiner". Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  2. "San Francisco Examiner". Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  3. "Victoria Sweet website". Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  4. "US News". Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  5. "Medical Board of California". Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  6. "UCSF profiles". Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  7. "The Pharos: "Review and Reflections"" (PDF). Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  8. "Humanum: Issues in Family, Culture and Science". Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  9. "New York Times". Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  10. "Guggenheim Fellowship". Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  • video: Victoria Sweet TEDx talk; Aug. 15, 2013
  • Transcript of talk: "Dr. Victoria Sweet on Slow Medicine: The Way to Healing" (Talks at Google); Feb. 1, 2018
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