Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter, A Must Read for all Women (and Men)

Kate Clifford Larson’s masterful examination of the nearly-forgotten story of Rosemary Kennedy – sister of a President and two other famous brothers, but confined to the shadows for decades after a lobotomy – drew me in on multiple levels.  As a health professional, as a woman, as an activist – and as the niece of another soul lost to that misguided and devastating medical procedure of the early 20th century. Even with his vast financial resources, and his political and personal connections, Joseph Kennedy, Sr., perhaps saw no other way to deal with his mentally troubled daughter.  Maybe, amid the shame and blame game of the times concerning mental health, the Nobel Prize-winning procedure seemed like a legitimate answer to a potentially embarrassing media story as the elder Kennedy made ambitious plans for his sons. God knows they tried the most exclusive schools for their beautiful but disturbed daughter before deciding to destroy a portion of her brain. In the same era, the working class Campbell family of Philadelphia also faced fear of the unknown, limited financial resources, lack of medical or mental health options, and taboos associated with “diseases of the brain.”  Maybe that led my recently widowed grandmother to agree to a lobotomy as the “solution” for her own daughter’s attempted suicides, outbursts, and repeated running away from home. In the midst of the Great Depression, my grandfather James Campbell had died suddenly.   My grandmother ...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Advocacy Source Type: blogs