How a lobotomy ruined JFK’s sister’s life and made her a disgrace to a star family

Rosemary was considered a problem child. Her parents’ attempts to “fix” her eventually led to a tragic end.

Rosemary was the third child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy and at first appeared to be a perfectly healthy child. However, as the girl grew, it became clear that she was developing differently than her brothers and sisters. Rosemary had speech problems and was prone to outbursts of anger and aggressive behavior, which worried her parents.

The girl was believed to have suffered a birth injury. The advice of the inexperienced nurse who was next to Rose Kennedy led to oxygen starvation of the child and the doctor delayed and there was no one to point out the mistakes.

At first, the girl’s parents tried to treat and tried different methods. She attended a special school for children with developmental delays, but her behavior remained problematic and she was often excluded. The Kennedy family also sought help from various doctors and specialists, but their advice was often conflicting and ineffective.

Rosemary’s condition worsened and her father, Joseph Kennedy, became increasingly disillusioned. This led him to the fateful decision to perform a lobotomy on her, a procedure that would change her life forever.

The lobotomy was performed in 1941, when Rosemary was just 23 years old, by Dr. Walter Freeman, one of the most famous lobotomists in the United States at the time.

The idea behind the currently banned procedure was to “cure” a person’s problematic behavior by cutting connections between areas of the brain.

The lobotomy performed on Rosemary Kennedy left her permanently disabled: she was unable to walk or speak normally, and her cognitive abilities were severely affected.

At first, Rosemary was in a mental hospital, and then she was transferred to Jefferson, Wisconsin, where she lived for the rest of her life on the grounds of the St. Coletta for people with disabilities. She was completely isolated from the outside world and cut off from her family. Only her father, Joseph Kennedy, visited her occasionally.

Rosemary’s condition was kept from the public. The Kennedy family did not publicly acknowledge her lobotomy for several decades, fearing it might damage their reputation and considering Rosemary a disgrace to the family, as mental illness was highly stigmatized in society at the time.

Joseph made a career in politics and had high hopes for his sons, he dreamed that one of them would become the president of the country, and information about a relative with mental problems could become a stain on the image of a rich and successful family.

In the family, Rosemary soon also became a taboo subject – none of her siblings even knew where she was. While her older brother John campaigned for re-election to the Senate in 1958, the Kennedy family attributed her absence from the public eye to being a recluse.

After her father’s death in 1969, Rosemary began spending time with her family again from time to time. The decision to return her family was made by her sister Eunice, who then dedicated her life to fighting for the rights of special people. Rosemary was flown to relatives in Florida and Washington, as well as her childhood home on Cape Cod. Meanwhile, she learned to walk again, but with a limp. She was never able to speak clearly and her hand was paralyzed.

Rosemary died of natural causes at the age of 86 in 2005. She was buried next to her parents at Holiness Cemetery in Brooklyn, Massachusetts.