Rosemary Kennedy Dies

[Serrart]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

I cannot say at the time I would have done differently as it was a different era, little was known of such matters, etc., but today, the lobotomy seems cruel. It also seems like her father was embarrassed by her - he considered her a failure. Gloris Swanson, with whom Kennedy had an affair, talked about this exact thing in detail in her terrific and fascinating auto biography. She said Joe could not handle failure and would not discuss Rosemary and was curt when she brought it up once. Having fairly recently discovered the benefits of not eating processed foods and seeing the good it did her to rid herself of the toxins they have, she suggested to Kennedy that Rosemary might benefit from this same diet (again, people in 1928 were not as aware of this as we are today) - he let her have it and then stormed out of the room and she had to have someone else drive her home. That is how he felt about this. So, I think that embarrasment caused or at least was part of the lobotomy. I do think that in later years, the family, or atleast her bothers and sisters, viewed it as a mistake once the effects were known. To me, it seems a horrible thing to do, but I am not in the 1920's and 30's and I did not see the effects of her brain damage and how she acted - for all I know, as she got older she could have been uncontrollably hysterical

You're right, we live in different times, but the more I read about Joe Kennedy the more I despise him.

Romy