# Victoria Sweet > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Victoria_Sweet > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Victoria_Sweet.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Sweet > Source revision: 1355294737 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|Physician}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Infobox person | name = Victoria Sweet | image = Victoria Sweet in the video 'Victoria Sweet at the San Francisco Public Library'.png | caption = Giving a talk at the [San Francisco Public Library](/source/San_Francisco_Public_Library) in 2014 | birth_date = | birth_place = [Los Angeles](/source/Los_Angeles), California, US | death_date = | death_place = | education = {{Plainlist| * [Stanford University](/source/Stanford_University) * [UC Irvine School of Medicine](/source/University_of_California%2C_Irvine_School_of_Medicine) * [UC San Francisco](/source/University_of_California%2C_San_Francisco) }} | known_for = "Slow Medicine" medical doctor Historian of medicine }} '''Victoria Sweet''' is an American physician, author and advocate for what is termed "[slow medicine](/source/slow_medicine)". She is also a [historian of medicine](/source/History_of_medicine) who has studied the writings of [Hildegard of Bingen](/source/Hildegard_of_Bingen), a [12th century](/source/12th_century) German [abbess](/source/abbess) and medical therapist. ==Biography== ===Early life=== Victoria Sweet was born in [Los Angeles](/source/Los_Angeles), California. Her ancestors came to California from Germany in 1836.{{cite news |url=http://www.sfexaminer.com/slow-healer-dr-victoria-sweet-sees-medicines-future-laguna-hondas-past/ |title=Slow Healer: Dr. Victoria Sweet sees medicine's future in Laguna Honda's past |first=Denise |last=Sullivan |newspaper=[San Francisco Examiner](/source/San_Francisco_Examiner) |date=10 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613065428/http://www.sfexaminer.com/slow-healer-dr-victoria-sweet-sees-medicines-future-laguna-hondas-past/ |archive-date=2018-06-13 |url-status=dead |access-date=2026-04-14}} ===Education=== As an undergraduate she studied at [Stanford University](/source/Stanford_University), where she majored in mathematics, with a minor in the [Classics](/source/Classics).{{cite web|url=https://www.victoriasweet.com/about/about-dr-sweet/|title=Victoria Sweet website|access-date= 1 February 2019}} She received her [MD](/source/Doctor_of_Medicine) degree in 1977 at age 27{{cite book |last=Sweet |first=Victoria |date=2017 |title=Slow Medicine}} from the [University of California Irvine School of Medicine](/source/University_of_California%2C_Irvine_School_of_Medicine).{{cite web|url=https://health.usnews.com/doctors/victoria-sweet-115473|title=US News|access-date=1 February 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://search.dca.ca.gov/details/8002/G/37066/be5ceab869c58eefa4982d4610aa6178| title=Medical Board of California|access-date=1 February 2019}} She received an [M.A.](/source/Master's_degree) degree in 1995 and a [Ph.D.](/source/Doctor_of_Philosophy) degree in 2003, both degrees in History of Health Sciences, from the [University of California, San Francisco](/source/University_of_California%2C_San_Francisco).{{cite web|url=https://profiles.ucsf.edu/victoria.sweet|title=UCSF profiles|access-date=1 February 2019}} ==Work as medical historian== thumb|Reconstruction of a medieval herbal garden Sweet's doctorate study was based on the medical treatise of [Hildegard of Bingen](/source/Hildegard_of_Bingen), written in Latin, entitled ''Causae et Curae'' ("''Causes and Cures''"). Sweet argues "that Hildegard trained and practiced as an infirmaria, or more specifically as a pigmentarius (meaning pharmacist, spicer, or herbalist), who would have been charged with caring for the medicinal herb garden and curing the sick in the monastic infirmary."{{cite web|url= https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/tmr/article/view/16546/22664|title= book review: Sweet, Rooted in the Earth|publisher= The Medieval Review, Indiana University|access-date= 11 October 2024}} 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.{{cite web|url=https://www.victoriasweet.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Pharos-Book-Reviews-4-1.2014-incl-Gods-Hotel.pdf|title=The Pharos: "Review and Reflections"|access-date= 1 February 2019}} 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.{{cite web|url= http://humanumreview.com/articles/the-catholic-roots-and-changing-anthropology-of-western-medicine|title=Humanum: Issues in Family, Culture and Science|access-date= 2 February 2019}} ==Views on medicine== [[File:Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center - San Francisco, CA - DSC03931.jpg|thumb|[Laguna Honda Hospital](/source/Laguna_Honda_Hospital), San Francisco, Californnia]] 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](/source/internal_medicine) physician at the old [Laguna Honda Hospital](/source/Friends_of_Laguna_Honda_Hospital) in [San Francisco](/source/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](/source/almshouse)" in America. The conjunction of studying the healing philosophy of Hildegard of Bingen along with working at the old Laguna Honda Hospital helped Sweet formulate principles of what she refers to as "[slow medicine](/source/slow_medicine)". 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."{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/health/29zuger.html|title=New York Times|date=28 May 2012|access-date= 2 February 2019|last1=Zuger|first1=Abigail}} ==Pilgrimage== [[File:Camino de Santiago (5364961214).jpg|thumb|Section of the [Camino de Santiago](/source/Camino_de_Santiago)]] Over a four-year period, Sweet walked the 1,200 mile (1,900 km) medieval pilgrimage-trail known as the "Way of St. James" (or in Spanish, the "[Camino de Santiago](/source/Camino_de_Santiago)"), from southern France to the north-west coast of Spain. For four different years, Sweet would return to walk a 400-mile (600 km) section of the trail, in order to complete the whole trail.{{cite web |url=https://www.dailygood.org/story/848/slow-medicine-an-interview-with-victoria-sweet-mary-stein/|title=Slow Medicine: An Interview With Victoria Sweet |publisher=Daily Good: News That Inspires |access-date= 28 August 2022}} While hiking the pilgrimage trail, Sweet experienced a sense of connectedness and fellow-feeling, based on mutual assistance and reciprocal compassion, which she then brought to her evolving practice of medicine.{{cite book |last=Wells |first=Samuel |date=2015 |title=A Nazareth Manifesto: Being with God |publisher=Wiley |page=127}} ==Published works== *''Rooted in the Earth, Rooted in the Sky: Hildegard of Bingen and Premodern Medicine'' (Studies in Medieval History and Culture) (2006), Routledge. *''God's Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine'' (2013), Riverhead Books (Penguin). *''Slow Medicine: The Way to Healing'' (2017), Riverhead Books (Penguin). ==Honors, decorations, awards and distinctions== [Guggenheim Fellowship](/source/Guggenheim_Fellowship) for 2014–2015 in the category of Creative Arts, General Non-fiction{{cite web |url= https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/victoria-sweet/|title = Guggenheim Fellowship |access-date=1 February 2019}} ==See also== *[Slow movement (culture)](/source/Slow_movement_(culture)) *[Narrative medicine](/source/Narrative_medicine) *[Viriditas](/source/Viriditas) ==References== {{wikiquote|Victoria Sweet}} {{reflist}} ==External links== *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA08kzp7tSg Video: Victoria Sweet TEDx talk]; August 15, 2013 *[https://singjupost.com/dr-victoria-sweet-on-slow-medicine-the-way-to-healing-talks-at-google-transcript/?singlepage=1 Transcript of talk: "Dr. Victoria Sweet on Slow Medicine: The Way to Healing"] (Talks at Google); February 1, 2018 {{authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Sweet, Victoria}} Category:Living people Category:American women medical doctors Category:American medical historians Category:Health care quality Category:Slow movement Category:Medical doctors from Los Angeles Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Stanford University alumni Category:University of California, Irvine alumni Category:University of California, San Francisco alumni Category:Historians from California Category:21st-century American women --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Victoria Sweet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Sweet) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Sweet?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.