to suppress the violent behaviour of many mental patients and make them more manageable. This procedure involved drilling two holes in the skull and inserting a thin surgical instrument known as a leucotome. By carefully rotating the leucotome, the surgeon could carefully severe the brain fibers. It was extremely delicate surgery which could only be done by skilled neurosurgeons. Beginning with his first successful operation in 1935, Moniz' research results earned him an international reputation as well as the 1949 Nobel prize in medicine.

Moniz' procedure proved to be extremely popular despite the complex nature of the operation. Lobotomies began to be carried out in numerous countries to treat a wide range of psychiatric conditions. Still, it was American neurologist Walter Freeman who really launched the psychosurgery movement inthe United States alone despite warnings from Freeman's critics that his magical operation was too good to be true.

And so it proved with Rosemary Kennedy. It is still unclear who persuaded her parents to allow the operation or what they had hoped to accomplish with it. Some sources suggest that it was Joseph Kennedy alone who authorized the surgery though Rose indicated in her own memoirs that she agreed to it as well. While exact details of the lobotomy performed on Rosemary aren't available, the profound effect that it had on her were apparent from the very beginning. The original purpose of the operation had to curb Rosemary's aggressive behaviour and, in that respect,the lobotomy was a success, but at a horrible price. Rosemary was no longer the