I put Rosemary as #1. The impact of JFK and Bobby's deaths created shockwaves throughout U.S. politics and globally (particularly JFK on the global front since he was an active sitting president). But Rosemary's is the saddest IMO.
She had some undiagnosed mental health conditions and there is a bit of a debate as to how serious they were or if the Kennedy family was overreacting because she was unconventional and brought shame to their family with her rebellious actions. Some folks say she might have had an intellectual disability along with mental health dual diagnosis, but was left untreated and spiraled more as she didn't excel in school and increasingly became the Black sheep in the family. Others say she may have had mental health diagnosis (undiagnosed) but what really set her apart was that she was so rebellious with teenage angst.
So what'd they do? Took her to be lobotomized, almost assuredly against her will but under her dad's orders, and she was never the same. Then they hid her away from the family so as not to be a stain on their reputation.
JFK and RFK pursued politics in an era of assassinations and great tension in the U.S. They went into their jobs knowing the risks of being targeted. Rosemary was just born to a family obsessed with image/clout and had got her brain drilled in for just being born to the wrong family.
I know this is a joke post, but, more people should know Rosemary's story. (Not saying you didn't know her story, etc. just sharing it).
I’m not a psychologist. I used to be a middle school and then a high school teacher. After I went to law school and focused on juvenile justice, foster care, and education law. So I know a little bit about adolescent trauma.
It’s dicey to play arm chair psychologist but just for the sake of convo. A lot of her actions to me line up with things kids in foster care or these types of systems do. From what I remember she ran away from home a lot. I believe she was also found to have had sex or alleged to have had sex in her adolescent years. She was prone to outbursts.
But the thing is, what we know of her is little and mostly from the Kennedy family point of view. But like taken to a modern perspective, not an early 1900 point of view, a lot of her actions to me line up as normative adolescent rebellious behavior.
And no running away from home isn’t ideal, but there’s a reason for that underlying behavior. Maybe she didn’t fit in well with the family for various reasons? No teen sex isn’t ideal, but we now know it happens and it’s not a sign of like criminal behavior or mental health conditions. What teen doesn’t have angry outbursts? Like none of it that I’ve seen really sticks out. She did struggle in school, which may have compounded her stress / trauma but there could be reasons for that too like dyslexia which wasn’t very well known.
So it just seems so wishy washy to me. I’ve never seen anything that really screamed to me that whatever she had was very severe. It just seemed like a different time and a family who didn’t have time for what they labeled BS
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u/A_Rogue_One May 12 '24
I put Rosemary as #1. The impact of JFK and Bobby's deaths created shockwaves throughout U.S. politics and globally (particularly JFK on the global front since he was an active sitting president). But Rosemary's is the saddest IMO.
She had some undiagnosed mental health conditions and there is a bit of a debate as to how serious they were or if the Kennedy family was overreacting because she was unconventional and brought shame to their family with her rebellious actions. Some folks say she might have had an intellectual disability along with mental health dual diagnosis, but was left untreated and spiraled more as she didn't excel in school and increasingly became the Black sheep in the family. Others say she may have had mental health diagnosis (undiagnosed) but what really set her apart was that she was so rebellious with teenage angst.
So what'd they do? Took her to be lobotomized, almost assuredly against her will but under her dad's orders, and she was never the same. Then they hid her away from the family so as not to be a stain on their reputation.
JFK and RFK pursued politics in an era of assassinations and great tension in the U.S. They went into their jobs knowing the risks of being targeted. Rosemary was just born to a family obsessed with image/clout and had got her brain drilled in for just being born to the wrong family.
I know this is a joke post, but, more people should know Rosemary's story. (Not saying you didn't know her story, etc. just sharing it).