Posted on 01/07/2006 11:24:27 AM PST by ncountylee
Born slightly retarded, Rosemary Kennedy learned to read and write, and through her early 20s friends described her as bubbly and personable.
Her famous family, however, feared that Rosemary might get pregnant, catch a venereal disease, or otherwise embarrass the Kennedys. To prevent this, she became one of the first Americans to undergo a prefrontal lobotomy, having the frontal lobes of her brain surgically scraped off in 1942.
This resulted in Ms. Kennedy's paralysis, incoherence, and incontinence. She was institutionalized for the rest of her life, rarely mentioned by the Kennedys or by those who consider the family American royalty.
(Excerpt) Read more at nndb.com ...
It is a crime what they did to her. And then they spend their lives promoting Speical Olympics events?? Total heartless hypocrites, the entire family. They still call them "American royalty"!? Considering how most royal families have acted over the centuries, it probably applies to them but in negative ways, not the glamorous ones. They are our own "Camelot" of course...and the media LOVES them forever.
Here's another movie to get a taste/distaste of it: Frances, the Frances Farmer story.
I read the same thing in a bio once.
from the article
The family of Mary Lou Zimmerman would agree. In 1998, Zimmerman, a former bookkeeper who was then 58, visited the Cleveland Clinic to have surgery to relieve severe OCD. Zimmerman suffered from one of the most common compulsions, a fear of contamination. She spent hours every day showering and washing her hands, and neither drugs nor counseling could break the cycle.
A surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic performed two procedures in combination - a cingulotomy and a capsulotomy - burning four holes in her brain. More typically, surgeons perform one procedure, making two holes. It was soon clear that the patient had suffered crippling brain damage, either from the surgery, from an infection or from both, said the woman's attorney, Robert Linton, of the Cleveland law firm Linton & Hirshman. In June 2002, a jury in Ohio awarded Zimmerman and her husband, Sherman, $7.5 million in damages. "She is completely disabled and needs full-time care," said Linton. "This is an example of what can happen when an experimental procedure goes awry. There are real risks."
Be interesting to know how old Teddy was fore he could tie is own shoes. Now, he can't reach the laces I guess.
>...and she was still one of the least embarrassing members of the family. How is it that Rosemary got lobotomized and Ted didn't?<
Or they could've castrated him...before or after Chappaquiddick.
Joe Kennedy must have feared Rosemary had inherited his immoral sexual genes when you consider the reasons he gave for having her lobotomized. He certainly didn't seem to mind that his adulterous lifestyle might have an effect on his family. From reports, he and Gloria Swanson did not hide their affair, and she was even on the same ship sailing to Europe with the family. His sons, unfortunately, did take after him, and their wives suffered the humiliation of being married to the philandering Kennedy's. The MSM wouldn't dare tell the public the truth...it might make people in Massachusetts face reality and have to acknowledge what a louse Ted Kennedy really is.
It's a wonder they didn't toss her in the Charles River after birth. I bet Teddy & 'Patches' wish they could lobotomize Joan right about now.
No, then he'd be impotent, but still stupid. Besides, Patrick was Ted and Joan's youngest, and he was born in '67. Chappaquiddick was in '69. So the damage was already done by then.
They would in a second without second thoughts.
Are you sure you have not mixed up lobotomies with electric shock treatments?
Excellent points! Tennessee Williams' mentally ill sister also acted out in a sexual manner so her mother had her lobotomized. Half of Mr. Williams' plays deal with this horror!
Sounds "almost" like Terry Schiavo, surprising the Kennedy's didn't just let her go "peacefully" without food or water/
I had heard this many years ago. The Kennedy's had a way of keeping it from the public, just as all dems have with anything in their closet.
More about Rosemary, the lobotomy procedure done back then, and the doctor who popularized it:
http://lang.sbsun.com/projects/lostamongus/displayarticle.asp?part=3&article=art04_lobotomy&page=1
http://www.rotten.com/library/medicine/lobotomy/
http://www.23nlpeople.com/lobotomy.htm
I wonder if Teddy stands behind his fathers decision?
Normal? I don't think so. Taunton State Hospital had many of the lobotomies living there under 24 hour watch. There was little in the way of drugs to control behavior. The wealthy took the same way out as the Kennedy's. Kennedy had the funds to keep Rosemary in a private place. Many just shuttled them into the state system. The cruelty of it all was very apparent back then and there was not one of us that could tell you it ever made a person function better.
Not one of them could function out in real life. They were far worse after the cruel and inhumane surgery.
Her famous family, however, feared that Rosemary might get pregnant, catch a venereal disease, or otherwise embarrass the Kennedys.
***
Now WHY would anyone EVER think a Kennedy might embarrass the family????
This is the most telling sentence in the article.
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