​Rosemary:  The Hidden Kennedy Daughter
Author:  Kate Clifford Larson
IBSN:  978-0-547-25025-0
 
APA Style Citation
Larson, K.C. (2015).  Rosemary:  The Hidden Kennedy Daughter.  New York, New York; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co.

​

Book Description
Kate Larson recounts the life of Rosemary Kennedy, the least known member of one of America’s most well-known families.  The Kennedy family attempted to find help for their daughter Rosemary in an era when individuals with intellectual disabilities had few options for educational placement and treatment.  During this time, individuals with intellectual disabilities were often treated as social pariahs rather than being placed in facilities that offered educational and therapeutic programming.  This was true for even for the wealthiest of Americans like the Kennedys. Few options were available for Rosemary’s education even with access to the best educational outlets and tutors in the world.
                                           
Rosemary Kennedy was the third child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy Kennedy and the first girl born after Joseph Jr. and future president John F. Kennedy.  Her mother, Rose Kennedy had planned a home birth for Rosemary as she had done with her two sons.  When the time came, Dr. Good who was scheduled to deliver the baby was busy taking care of those afflicted by the Spanish flu which had devastated the Boston area at the time.  The nurse attending to Rose was not allowed to deliver the baby despite her training in the most up-to-date medial techniques.  Rose attempted to wait for the doctor to arrive, but the baby continued to come and the nurse held the baby in the birth canal for two hours until the doctor arrived which may in part be responsible for the challenges Rosemary would later face.
 
Initially, Rosemary seemed to be a healthy baby, she cried less than her two older brothers but otherwise seemed to develop normally.  In addition to her mother, young Rosemary was attended to by nurses and other household staff who served the Kennedy family.  Joseph Kennedy Sr. was often away building fortune and fame for the family, first in the stock market and later in Hollywood and the political arena.  Rosemary’s father had become one of the wealthiest men in America, he had overcome the challenges of discrimination posed by his Irish and Catholic heritage.  Rose Kennedy also came from a well-known family, her father “Honey Fitz” had served as the mayor of Boston and she was used to socializing in political circles.  These two fast paced, hard driving individuals expected much from their children and did not accept failure.
 
Eventually, the Kennedy’s had six more children (nine in all).   By the age of three, it was evident that Rosemary was not progressing as quickly as her siblings.  As her younger siblings surpassed her intellectual and physical abilities, it became obvious that something was wrong with Rosemary, although the extent of her disability was not yet known.  Rose noticed that Rosemary had trouble holding her spoon and feeding herself.  Additionally, she crawled, stood, and took her first steps later than her older brothers and her younger siblings began to overtake her in their abilities.
 
Rose and Joseph Kennedy expected excellence from their children, in education, sports, manners, and appearance.  Rose kept precise medical records for each child and constantly chided her children about their weight.  Even in kindergarten, Rosemary was labeled as “deficient” and had to repeat both kindergarten and first grade.  Rose attempted to supplement Rosemary’s education herself.  When Rosemary was six or seven, she took the Otis Intelligence test which indicated that her mental age was lower than other children her age.  Rosemary often wrote in mirror writing (backward and upside down) and even when she grew older her writing never progressed beyond that of a third or fourth-grade level.  She often misspelled words, left words out. and wrote on a severe angle. 
 
At the time, there was rarely a distinction made between those who were mentally ill and those were cognitively disabled.  The words, “idiot”, “imbecile” or “moron” were frequently used to describe individuals with a low IQ.  Christian beliefs to which the Kennedy family strongly adhered often blamed parents for their children’s deficits.  Rosemary frequently moved between schools when she did not make progress or when the school decided that she was not the right “fit” for their services.  Rose and Joseph Kennedy often did not describe Rosemary’s true ability level prior to her arrival and the instructors and head masters found that they had more to deal with than they initially anticipated.  Rosemary did receive the benefit of one-on-one tutoring and the patience of some of the instructors allowed Rosemary to make some progress.  She especially loved her time in London at the Assumption House in the English countryside with nuns who employed the new Montessori techniques. Rosemary seemed to do better when academic work was broken up with arts and crafts and other hands-on activities.  At the time, her father was the ambassador to Great Britain and appearances such as Rosemary’s introduction to the King were highly regulated affairs so not to embarrass the Kennedy family.  Rosemary stayed on at the Assumption House after the departure of her family from London, but eventually had to come back to the United States because of the bombings of England during the WWII.
 
Medications and supplements were used, as were special diets and exercise but little seemed to help.  By her late teens, it was apparent that Rosemary’s condition was not improving and perhaps even regressing, she became more and more belligerent and often angry.  It is unclear if this was the result of so much change in her life, her siblings passing her up and living independent lives, or of a change in her condition. Regardless, this made dealing with Rosemary a considerable challenge.  By 1941, Rosemary’s behavior was cause for concern.  Despite her sister’s Kathleen’s (Kick) recommendation against the lobotomy procedure which she had investigated for her parents, (conducted by Doctors Freeman and Watts), Joseph Kennedy ordered a lobotomy for his daughter hoping that it would cure her of her “illness” or, at least, calm her increasingly frequent outbursts.
 
During the surgery, Watts drilled “burr holes” into Rosemary’s skull as she was strapped to a gurney.  She would have felt the leucotome, which was a specially designed tool for the use of lobotomies.  Rosemary was asked to sing, count, and tell stories during the surgery to distract her but also to guide Watt’s work to make sure that her senses were intact.  During the last of four cuts, she became incoherent which prompted Freeman and Watts to end the surgery.  It was immediately evident that the surgery had gone badly.  Rosemary would need years of physical and occupational therapy to regain speech and movement. Rosemary was twenty-three at the time of the surgery.
 
Nearly all of those who received lobotomies were women (82%). The lobotomy was used as a treatment for illnesses such as schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, and depression, but was also prescribed for other individuals who exhibited heightened sexual interest, habitual criminal behavior, or violence. Rose Kennedy did not initially know the surgery had taken place on her daughter (although there are conflicting reports regarding just what she knew) and she did not see her daughter for another twenty years. Many attributed this lack of contact to the embarrassment that Rosemary was not living up to the expectations of a Kennedy, others have said that seeing Rosemary in this state would have simply been too painful for her mother.  Throughout the remainder of her life, Rosemary would have daily support and therapy from the nuns who looked out for her.  She would eventually regain the partial use of her arm, but had to be dressed and fed each day. She was able to swim and slowly regained her ability to walk and speak a few basic words.  Freeman went on to report good results from the lobotomies despite many cases like Rosemary’s in which people basically lived in a vegetative state after the surgery, he went on to perform over 3,000 even after Watts refused to continue as his partner because of the many complication the surgery caused.
 
Rosemary was eventually moved to Jefferson, Wisconsin to live at Saint Coletta School where she had her own cottage and was cared for by the nuns who ran the school. While her story is tragic, the Kennedy’s faced many other family tragedies.  The death of her eldest brother Joe Jr. during WWII, the death of Kick (Rosemary’s older sister) in a place crash in Europe, the assassinations of her brothers Jack and Bobby (both of which Rosemary found out about by watching television) shook the family.  Eunice Shriver (Rosemary’s younger sister) seemed to be the most touched by Rosemary’s situation and began the Special Olympics with her husband Sargent Shriver in Chicago. This event is now an annual event in 200 countries around the world (with 4 million athletes participating).  As president, John F. Kennedy founded the Committee on Mental Retardation and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.  He delivered a special message on mental illness and mental retardation in the months before his assassination.  Camp Shriver was created as a summer camp for the intellectually disabled.  Anthony Shriver (Eunice’s son) began Best Buddies which provides employment and leadership opportunities for the intellectually disabled and his brother took over the running of the Special Olympics in 2003.  Rosemary’s younger brother Senator Teddy Kennedy sponsored the American with Disabilities Act and the Handicapped Children Act in Congress
 
Later in Rosemary’s life, her sister Eunice became responsible for overseeing her care and visited her often.  When her mother came to visit, Rosemary became agitated although it is unclear if she blamed Rose for the years of neglect or the surgery itself.  Joseph Kennedy never saw his daughter again and became incapacitated by a stroke later in life.  He provided financially for his daughter and wrote frequent letters to inquire about her well-being, but he was otherwise absent from her life. 
 
Despite Rosemary’s long absence from the Kennedy family record, she may well have done more to influence the work of the Kennedy family and help them understand and promote research and opportunities for the cognitively and physically disabled than any other member of the family.  Rosemary was a “big personality” as those around her at all points of her life indicate.  Her legacy will live on the help others who face similar challenges.  Rosemary Kennedy died in 2005 at the age of 86 in Wisconsin.
 
Other Related Resources
The Tragic Life of JFK’s Sister
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2015/01/little-known-tragic-life-jfks-sister-rosemary-kennedy/
 
L.A. Times:  Rosemary’s diaries:  Her life before the lobotomy
Brief 1995 article discussing the teenage diaries of Rosemary Kennedy
http://articles.latimes.com/1995-08-06/news/mn-31942_1_rose-kennedy
 
The Daily Mail:  Before and After Pictures of Rosemary Kennedy
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3246802/How-Rosemary-Kennedy-went-vibrant-young-beauty-smiling-brother-John-F-Kennedy-feeble-spinster-misdiagnosed-forced-undergo-lobotomy-seen-touching-photos-Ted-nephew-JFK-Jr-niece-Maria-Shriver.html
 
Rosemary Kennedy’s inconvenient illness
http://www.newsmax.com/RonaldKessler/Rosemary-Kennedy/2008/06/17/id/324146/
 
Information on Cognitive Deficits
http://www.disabled-world.com/disability/types/cognitive/
 
Eunice Kennedy Shriver:  The Special Olympics
http://www.eunicekennedyshriver.org/
 
History of the Special Olympics
http://www.sode.org/about/history-of-special-olympics/
 
Psychological Figures and Concepts
Walter Freeman
Egaz Moniz
Intellectual Disability
Intelligence Testing
Labeling
Prefrontal Lobotomy
Schizophrenia
Stigma

The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work
Author:  Shawn Achor
ISBN:  9780307591548
 
APA Style Citation
Achor, S. (2010). The Happiness Advantage: The seven principles of positive psychology that fuel success and performance at work. New York: Broadway Books.

Book Description
According to Shawn Achor, the traditional idea that if you work hard, you will be more successful, and have higher levels of happiness is contrary to the reality of how our brains work. Research on happiness has demonstrated that if you achieve success, your brain will simply move the goal post for “success” farther away.  As a result, true and lasting happiness can never be found at the end of achievement because the reverse is true.  If an individual is happy he or she will be more likely to achieve. Happiness actually increases levels of success by making our brains more innovative, resilient, effective, and productive.  Happiness is the cause of success rather than the result.  Happiness and optimism generate a competitive edge that the author calls the Happiness Advantage and the book outlines countless studies from neuroscience, economics, and business that demonstrate how happiness leads to success. Happy people experience a 23% reduction in stress, 39% better overall health, 31% greater productivity, and a 34% increase in positive social interactions.  The book outlines not only the enormous advantages associated with a positive mood but also how it can be achieved. 
 
Achor effectively makes the case for how we can program our brains to increase positivity in the present and consequently improve performance across in many areas including work, health, relationships, creativity, and energy levels.  The book focuses on seven specific principles that individuals can use to generate a happiness advantage and maximize their potential. 
 
Principle #1: The Happiness Advantage
Positive mood makes individuals more productive, engaged, creative, and efficient.  Research indicates that a variety of intentional activities can increase personal happiness such as meditation, thinking about a positive future event, doing conscious acts of kindness for others, exercise, and utilizing a signature strength.  Signature strengths are the positive and productive personality traits that are strong in a particular individual (see accompanying activity).  Happiness levels are increased dramatically when individuals engage in activities that are directly related to signature strengths.
 
Principle #2: The Fulcrum and the Lever
The title of the principle comes from a quote by Archimedes, the ancient Greek mathematician who said, “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.”  For the author, brains work in a similar fashion.  The power to maximize individual potential is based on the length of the lever (the amount of potential and control an individual believes they have) and the location of the fulcrum (the mindset of an individual). Psychologist Ellen Langer showed the power of mindset (fulcrum) in her 1979 experiment that involved a group of 75-year-old men on a week-long retreat.  During the retreat, the men were asked to pretend that the year was 1959 and were aided in the illusion by period clothing and materials. After spending a week in 1959 (when they were 20 years younger), the participants were significantly more flexible, had improved hand strength and posture, and showed an improvement in vision of almost 10 percent.  They also showed improved memory capacity and intelligence scores.
Achor recommends that managers ask themselves three questions every Monday to help them refocus on a growth mindset (fulcrum) to allow their beliefs about the potential of their employees take effect.  These same three questions can be used by teachers to motivate students. 
 
    1.  Do I believe that the intelligence and skills of my students are not fixed, but can be     improved with effort?
    2.  Do I believe that my students want to make that effort, just as they want to find     meaning and fulfillment in their assignments?
    3. How am I conveying these beliefs in my daily words and actions?
 
According to the author, when we recognize that our reality is contingent upon our viewpoint then the idea that external events comprise only about 10 percent of our personal happiness becomes less surprising. 
 
Principle #3: The Tetris Effect
The Tetris Effect is a phenomenon that results when an individual spends so much time on a particular activity, such as the video game Tetris, that the result is that the pattern impacts the person’s cognitions, dreams, and imagery.  The phenomenon was discovered when individuals who devoted a large amount of time to playing Tetris found that they would often think about how objects in the real world would fit together as spatial objects in the game.  According to the author, the Tetris Effect can either reduce or increase subjective well-being.  For example, an individual may find that through practice they begin to scan the world for the negative become less and less happy.  The Tetris effect can also be used to maximize happiness by training the brain to seek out, notice, and take advantage of opportunities and possibilities that arise instead of automatically seeing limitations.  The difference between a negative and positive Tetris Effect was demonstrated effectively by Richard Wiseman in a study in which participants were instructed to look through a newspaper and count how many photos appeared.  The participants who identified themselves as ‘lucky’ were able to finish the task in seconds while those who felt that they were ‘unlucky’ took two minutes on average.  On the second page, there was a large headline stating “Stop counting, there are 43 photos”, those who considered themselves to be ‘unlucky’ were far less likely to notice this clue.  Additionally, about halfway through the paper was another message stating “Stop counting, tell the experimenter that you have seen this and win $250”, but again the individuals who considered themselves ‘unlucky’ missed this opportunity.   This study illustrates how training the brain to scan for the positive can improve both happiness levels and success while a negative Tetris Effect (believing one is unlucky) can cause an individual to miss opportunities.
 
Principle #4: Falling Up
In this principle, the idea is to find ways to turn setbacks into opportunities for growth which Achor calls capitalizing on downs to build upward momentum.  This principle relates to developing resiliency and the psychological idea of post-traumatic growth.  Frequently, traumatic events such as loss, chronic illness, displacement, and assault have also led to positive growth. After horrible events, some individuals experience increases in kindness, compassion, overall life satisfaction, self-confidence, and personal strength.  Research into post-traumatic growth is filled with individuals who describe themselves as “bouncing forward” not merely “bouncing back”.  Falling up provides examples from research on posttraumatic growth and cognitive psychology to help individuals facing a challenging situation at home, work, or school emerge from the situation stronger than ever. 
 
Principle #5: The Zorro Circle
In the Zorro Circle, the emphasis is on learning to focus on small manageable steps in order to build the momentum needed for larger goals. The belief that one is in control of one’s own life at work, school, and home is one of the strongest predictors of well-being and performance.  In one example, researchers found that allowing nursing home residents to have more control over some of the aspects of their daily lives—like caring for plants—not only did their levels of happiness improve, but their mortality rate actually dropped in half. Psychological research in goal-setting theory recommends setting goals of moderate difficulty allow individuals to have success and develop a sense of control.  A practical application of the Zorro Circle can be seen in a study discussed in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point regarding New York City officials focusing on small manageable goals to combat the rising crime rate of the 1980’s and 1990’s on subways.  The problem was approached by using the Broken Windows Theory devised by sociologists James Q. Wilson and George Kelling which states that minor acts of vandalism would, if left unaddressed, spiral out of control into more serious crimes.   New York City officials decided to work on eliminating graffiti and cleaning up trains.  Ultimately, by cleaning up the trains, one by one, officials saw positive results in the form of reduced subway crimes as the Zorro Circle spread outwards. 
 
Principle #6: The 20-Second Rule
The 20-second rule uses psychological research to help eliminate bad habits and establish positive ones by reducing the barriers to making changes. The 20-second rule involves lowering the amount of energy required for habits you wish to foster and raising the amount of energy required for habits you wish to break.  For example, this means putting barriers in the way of bad habits and making activities that you want to increase easier to start.   If you want to eat healthier keep the junk food out of your house or in the most inconvenient location in your kitchen so that it would require more energy, even as little as 20 seconds, to reach. If you find that you waste too much time checking email, looking at Facebook, or checking specific websites Achor advises that you create barriers that make these activities more difficult for you to reach.  For example, eliminate the automatic password and login, take the shortcuts off the desktop, remove Facebook and email from your phone, and removing distracting websites from your homepage or favorites.  This according to Achor essentially buries your online distractions in the electronic equivalent of Russian stacking dolls. Cutting the activation energy required to start a new positive habit, even by as little as 20 seconds can also have a big impact. For example, the author discusses how he used the 20-second rule to build the habit of working out in the morning before work.  To reduce the effort required and distractions that could prevent him from running he decided to sleep in his gym clothes with his running shoes right by the bed.  This allowed him to decrease the amount of activation energy required in the morning to go run; he just needed to roll out of bed and put on his shoes.  This simple first step was how he was able to build a habit of morning exercise.  According to the athletes and non-athletes, he has talked to worldwide say that just the act of putting on running shows triggers your brain to believe that it is easier to work out right away than to go through the hassle of taking off your shoes.  Despite the fact that taking off one’s shoes is clearly easier Achor states that, “the brain, once it has tripped toward a habit, will naturally keep rolling in that direction, following the path of perceived least resistance.”  This idea can work with other types of changes individuals want to make – it is simply a matter of determining how to “just get your shoes on” for tasks related to work, school, or other interests.  The less energy needed to get started (even 20 seconds) the easier it will be to make a good habit lasting. 
 
Principle #7: Social Investment
One of the strongest influences on happiness is the strength of one’s social network.  The happiest 10 percent of individuals are most clearly distinguished by the strength of their interpersonal relationships.  Individuals who have strong social support networks are more productive, engaged, energized, and able to handle setbacks.  Achor compares an individual’s support network to the way an offensive line protects the quarterback. One of the most important areas for social support is the relationship between an employee and a supervisor or in the case of education, teacher and student.  A bad relationship between an employee and a supervisor can be destructive to both happiness and overall physical health.  According to Achor, “A bad relationship with your boss can be as bad for you as a steady diet of fried foods—and not nearly as much fun.”
 
The Happiness Advantage ends with the Ripple Effect or how one individual’s mindset can have an impact on coworkers, friends, family members, and communities.  Emotions, both positive and negative, can be contagious.  Daniel Goleman describes how negative emotions from one individual can almost immediately infect a group, “Like secondhand smoke, the leakage of emotions can make a bystander an innocent casualty of someone else’s toxic state.”  But the happiness advantage also means that positive emotions are contagious as well, making them a powerful tool for improving performance in the classroom or workplace. According to Shawn Achor, “Each tiny move towards a more positive mindset can send ripples of positivity through our organizations, our families, and our communities.”
 
Other Related Resources
 
Shawn Achor – The Happy Secret to Better Work
Shawn Achor’s TED talk, which has had over 11 million viewings to date, is an incredible introduction to positive psychology which students will find engaging and inspiring.
http://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work?language=en
 
Goodthinkinc.com
GoodThink is Shawn Anchor’s company website that has the seeks to find ways to apply academic research in cognitive and positive psychology to real world situations.  Goodthink Inc. is a team of world-renowned researchers, speakers, and trainers who deliver information to organizations around the globe.
http://goodthinkinc.com/
 
Martin Seligman and New Era of Positive Psychology
Martin Seligman, the founder of positive psychology discusses the overall field of psychology.
https://www.ted.com/talks/martin_seligman_on_the_state_of_psychology?language=en
 
Center for Healthy Minds – University of Wisconsin, Madison
Founded by Dr. Richard Davidson, the Center for Healthy Minds conducts research on the neural bases of emotion and methods that promote well-being and human flourishing.
http://centerhealthyminds.org/
 
Website for Dr. Richard Davidson
The website of Richard Davidson, PhD of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
http://richardjdavidson.com/
 
 Psychological Figures and Concepts
Carol Dweck   
Viktor Frankl
Daniel Gilbert
Malcolm Gladwell
William James
Abraham Maslow
Robert Rosenthal
Martin Seligman
Active Listening
Altruism
Anchoring
Dopamine
Emotional Intelligence
Endorphins
Explanatory Style
Facial Feedback Hypothesis
Fight-or-flight Response
Inattentional Blindness
Learned helplessness
Locus ofCcontrol
Mindset
Mirror Neuron
Neuroplasticity
Oxytocin
Posttraumatic Growth
Principles of Psychology
Priming
Pygmalion Effect
Reverse Placebo Effect
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Serotonin
Signature Strength
Stereotype Threat
Subjective Well-Being
Theory X and Theory Y