Slow Medicine, by Victoria Sweet
Victoria Sweet is a doctor and author of God's Hotel, a bestseller that chronicled her tenure at Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco, which took on the sickest of the poor of that city. This book is also a chronicle, of her intellectual journey through and education in medicine. She started out a full blown hippie, though perhaps she didn't think of herself that way. A trip to Europe after college introduced her to Carl Jung and his particular brand of holistic psychology, and when she decided to further her schooling in that field, she was told to get a PhD or MD; she chose the latter.
Most of Sweet's jobs have been in clinics or hospitals for the indigent, and she clearly sees medicine as an empathetic art. She seeks to see the whole of a patient, not just the part that isn't currently working. Through the years, she's learned about Eastern medicinal techniques, and found a kindred spirit in the medieval polymath Hildegarde of Bingen, most well known for her songs, poems, and visions, but who was also her abbey's doctor and pharmacist. The medievalist in me certainly enjoyed seeing Hildegarde through Sweet's eyes.
The writing is formulaic, but Sweet's message is clear, and important. Medicine has changed to "health care," become digitized and efficient, but while we gain the advancement of science, we lose the personal, holistic touch of medicine from an earlier age. Doctors and nurses are now health care providers, which makes the rest of us health care consumers, rather than sick people who just want to be well. Sweet's charge is that as wonderful as modern medicine is, sometimes the best thing we can do is to slow down, or even do nothing at all. The body is a complex organism that often needs help, but just as often heals itself, given enough time and care. We could all do with a little slowing down, I think.
If you're in the North Bay, Victoria Sweet will be speaking and signing books at the Napa County Library on Thursday, Jan. 25th, at 7:00!
Most of Sweet's jobs have been in clinics or hospitals for the indigent, and she clearly sees medicine as an empathetic art. She seeks to see the whole of a patient, not just the part that isn't currently working. Through the years, she's learned about Eastern medicinal techniques, and found a kindred spirit in the medieval polymath Hildegarde of Bingen, most well known for her songs, poems, and visions, but who was also her abbey's doctor and pharmacist. The medievalist in me certainly enjoyed seeing Hildegarde through Sweet's eyes.
The writing is formulaic, but Sweet's message is clear, and important. Medicine has changed to "health care," become digitized and efficient, but while we gain the advancement of science, we lose the personal, holistic touch of medicine from an earlier age. Doctors and nurses are now health care providers, which makes the rest of us health care consumers, rather than sick people who just want to be well. Sweet's charge is that as wonderful as modern medicine is, sometimes the best thing we can do is to slow down, or even do nothing at all. The body is a complex organism that often needs help, but just as often heals itself, given enough time and care. We could all do with a little slowing down, I think.
If you're in the North Bay, Victoria Sweet will be speaking and signing books at the Napa County Library on Thursday, Jan. 25th, at 7:00!
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