The cause of Kennedy Family Tragedy: Lobotomy of Rosemary Kennedy

Over lunch one day at work, conversation suddenly turned towards lobotomy. Lobotomy -which I haven't known of nor heard about in my life until that day- turns out to be a process they used to do in the olden times where they put a metal stick with spiralled ends inside your eye and push it up so it can reach your brain and they can tinker with it, or cut off some parts of it. Lobotomy was said to be used on mentally sick patients, specifically killers so that they will be less aggressive and to tame down their violent tendencies. Unfortunately, some people who undergo lobotomy turn into a vegetative state, with their minds reset back into infantile stage, turning them incoherent, paralyzed, drooling, staring blankly at walls for periods of time, and ridding them of any emotions.

I was so engrossed by the topic that over the weekend, I Googled it immensely. The first person that came up was Rosemary Kennedy, John F. Kennedy's sister. Rosemary Kennedy was said to have a lower IQ than the rest of the Kennedy siblings, around 90 which was pretty average, but apparently not enough for her father, Joe. At age 22, Rosemary became moody, and was prone to going out at night. Joe disapproved, and to sustain the good image of the Kennedys, he decided to put her daughter through a lobotomy procedure. At that time, lobotomy was just a new concept, and it still involves drilling holes into the skull and cutting through some parts of the brain, instead of the trans-orbital lobotomy which let the tool pass through the eyes.

During Rosemary's lobotomy, where she was put under mild anesthesia, she was asked by trial-and-error doctor Freeman to sing all throughout the lobotomy, and her response became their basis on how deep they were digging and cutting at her brain. They stopped when Rosemary's response became incoherent and she suddenly fell silent. -Now what kind of idiot doctor will only stop operating when his patient became paralyzed into muteness?! And what kind of idiot family would allow this to happen to their daughter?!

The lobotomy left Rosemary unable to take care of herself or do the simple task of dressing herself. She became incoherent and silent, staring into walls for periods of time, drooling, and more or less of a vegetative state. Her mind was like an infant's once again, and the only thing she could do was to identify herself.
Thank God I wasn't born in that era and I was spared from potential lobotomy! I remember being brought to a child psychologist in St. Luke's when I was acting bratty as a kid.


In 1961, Rosemary's father Joe had a stroke which was said to be his karma for masterminding the lobotomy of her daughter.

The irony of the stroke was in Joe's appearance. Half a century earlier he had allowed surgeons to give his daughter Rosemary a prefrontal lobotomy that had gone poorly. Her mind had been nearly destroyed, but more obvious were changes in her face and body. Joe, like his daughter, now had partial facial paralysis, a tendency to drool, a partially crippled body, and the inability to make intelligible statements. The obvious external damage Joe Kennedy had sustained was exactly the same as that of the child he had hidden away for five decades. (Schwarz, Joseph P. Kennedy, p. 425). -http://www.reformation.org/kennedy-assassination.html


According to this blog whose owner also felt deeply for Rosemary, during a reunion in 1975 with her younger sister Eunice, who had the most love for Rosemary out of all the other Kennedys, Eunice lost Rosemary while looking at some religious booklets in church. 5 hours later, penniless Rosemary was found 5 blocks away, preoccupied with window shopping on Michigan Avenue. She barely looked up as she said yes at the TV reporter who found her and asked her if she was looking for Eunice.

To end this post, here's a lovely song by Rasputina in tribute to Rosemary:

Rose K.

She doesn't know the man 

Who tries to push her wheelchair in the sand.
She just looks out to sea.
He's talking endlessly.

Oh, why won't he shutup?
I take my medicine
I crush the paper cup.
Oh, maybe he's my son
And he's coming to set me free.

She knows that she forgot
That there's a story and she
Can't recall the plot.
Of course her family fought
Over the furniture.

Oh, I don't know why they
Have taken all my favorite things away.
But one thing that's for sure
I don't know what they were.

They say a stone is a marker
And that it has weight.
They say it's solid
But it can deteriorate.

The air is like a hand
Reminding her of all the things she's planned.
Like air that thought is gone
Never to come again.

We came out to the beach to find the mind I've lost and cannot reach.
I used to keep it here.
It was much cleaner then.

They say a rose is a flower
And that it is red.
It blooms, it grows, it wilts
And then it is dead.

They say a stone is a marker
And that it has weight.
They say it's solid
But it can deteriorate.

They say a rose is a flower
And that it is red.
It blooms, it grows, it wilts
And then it is dead.

Oh, Rose Kennedy.