Kate Clifford Larson Quotes

• “(Frances Ellen Watkins Harper) "In closing, Harper challenged the white women in the audience to stand by their black sisters, to look beyond their own white privilege. “You white women speak here of rights. I speak of wrongs,” she reminded them. “Talk of giving women the ballot-box? … While there exists this brutal element in society which tramples upon the feeble and treads down the weak, I tell you that if there is any class of people who need to be lifted out of their airy nothings and selfishness, it is the white women of America.”

  Kate Clifford Larson

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• “Treatment for people with disabilities and mental illness in prewar America reveals a profoundly ignorant medical establishment and educational community.”

  Kate Clifford Larson

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• “It’s really that simple: love gave me confidence and adversity gave me purpose.”

  Kate Clifford Larson

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• “ROSEMARY AND EUNICE’S brother Ted, a senator from Massachusetts for more than forty-seven years, would take over as legislative champion for the cause of the disabled by initiating, sponsoring, and supporting hundreds of pieces of legislation. He believed that Rosemary “taught us the worth of every human being.”

  Kate Clifford Larson

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• “In subject files labeled as correspondence related to Rosemary Kennedy, withdrawal sheets indicate the removal of hundreds of documents dating between 1923 and the 1970s. This leaves significant gaps in the historical record. A large amount of the withdrawn material is associated with Rosemary’s treatment and care after her lobotomy.”

  Kate Clifford Larson

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• “When holding Rose’s legs together failed to keep the baby from coming, the nurse resorted to another, more dangerous practice: holding the baby’s head and forcing it back into the birth canal for two excruciating hours. The”

  Kate Clifford Larson

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• “It has been suggested that Joe Sr. spoke with doctors about a very experimental brain operation for the treatment of serious mental-health conditions, leucotomy—popularly known as prefrontal lobotomy—while he was still in England.”

  Kate Clifford Larson

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• “The surgery involved cutting the white fibrous connective tissue linking the frontal lobes to the rest of the brain, relieving the violent rages and psychological and physical pain some severely mentally ill patients suffered. White told Kick that the results were “just not good”; he had seen for himself that after the surgery patients “don’t worry so much, but they’re gone as a person, just gone.”

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• “Women were most frequently institutionalized by the order of husbands and fathers, whose will and opinion superseded the women’s.”

  Kate Clifford Larson

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• “disorder, chronic pain, and bipolar and other mood disorders. The procedure was also used to treat perceived defective personality traits that included homosexuality, nymphomania, criminal behavior, and marijuana and drug addiction. Freeman would later describe potential patients as society’s “misfits.” Women, in particular, made up the largest group of lobotomy patients. Women who were depressed, had bipolar illness, or were sexually active outside the range of socially and culturally acceptable limits of the day—including single women exhibiting typical sexual desire—were considered candidates.”

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• “The stigma of mental illness is still alive and well.”

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• “His chief complaint focused on the one-size-fits-all method of teaching groups of students in American classrooms; it was a serious obstacle to individual success, he believed.”

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• “Ted helped pass major social and civil rights legislation. His efforts include the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (1975), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Child Care Act (both passed in 1990), and the Ryan White AIDS Care Act of 1990; he increased funding for the National Institutes of Health and many more educational, housing, medical, and support-services programs. The ADA specifically prohibited discrimination on the basis of disability, forcing the inclusion of millions of people with disabilities in education, housing, employment, sports, and more. Hatch said that even though he and Kennedy differed much on policy and philosophy, he “never doubted for a minute [Ted’s] commitment to help the elderly, the ill, and those Americans who have been on the outside looking in for far too long.”

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• “Newton found that breaking up Rosemary’s day between academic lessons and craft activities helped with her concentration and gave Rosemary opportunities to talk about her academic work with Adeline: “I received this idea from visiting several schools for retarded children when they found this plan of procedure gives the best results, as 9–11:30 or longer is too long for her to concentrate on school subjects.” Helen spent lunchtime showing Rosemary how to use her lessons as launching points for polite conversation. Adeline monitored Rosemary when she did her homework, and Helen noted, “She gets a great deal from my mother’s personality.”

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• “ADA, he said, “Many of us have been touched by others with disabilities. My sister Rosemary is retarded; my son lost his leg to cancer. And others who support the legislation believe in it for similar special reasons. I cannot be unmindful of the extraordinary contributions of those who have been lucky enough to have members of their families or children who are facing the same challenges and know what this legislation means.”

  Kate Clifford Larson

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• “If Dr. Good missed the birth of the baby, he could not charge his extremely high fee of $125 for prenatal care and delivery. When holding Rose’s legs together failed to keep the baby from coming, the nurse resorted to another, more dangerous practice: holding the baby’s head and forcing it back into the birth canal for two excruciating hours.”

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• “Through the loving, indomitable spirit of Rosemary, the Kennedy family found one of its greatest missions, and in doing so changed millions of lives.”

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• “She had a tendency to write from right to left, rather than left to right—often called mirror writing—a clear indicator of developmental disorders.”

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• “Rosemary’s inability to decode the difference between left and right may have been a sign of dyslexia. This developmental disability may also explain her limited capacity to spell, to correctly form letters, and to master directions.”

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• “During Rosemary’s childhood, the distinction between the intellectually disabled and the mentally ill was rarely made. Instead, according to psychological definitions of the day, “idiots” were the most severely disabled, classified as those with the intellectual capacity of a two-year-old or younger; “imbeciles” as those with a three- to eight-year-old mental capacity; and “morons” as those with an eight- to twelve-year-old capacity. These labels limited society’s understanding of people with intellectual and physical disabilities, and lacked nuanced interpretation of the causes and conditions of various disabilities, including the many types of simple and complex learning disorders.”

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• “The demands of children, marriage, and pregnancy threatened to swallow her up.”

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• “idiots' were the most severely disabled, classified as those with the intellectual capacity of a two-year-old or younger; 'imbeciles' as those with a three- to eight-year-old mental capacity; and 'morons' as those with and eight- to twelve-year-old capacity. These labels limited society’s understanding of people with intellectual and physical disabilities.”

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• “it was with a great deal of help and supervision that Rosemary was able to perform. Newton observed that Rosemary could not concentrate on her studies for more than two and a half hours. Her limited attention span thwarted attempts to educate her,”

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• “[Ted Kennedy] believed that Rosemary 'taught us the worth of every human being.”

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• “sentence.” More changes”

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