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WORK TITLE: Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 5/30/1952
WEBSITE:
CITY: Waltham
STATE: MA
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
She won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1997; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_McNamara; Phone: 781-736-3049
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born May 30, 1952, in Cambridge, MA; married Peter May (a sportswriter); children: Timothy, Patrick, Katherine.
EDUCATION:Barnard College, B.A., 1974; Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, M.S., 1976.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Journalist. Daily News, New York, NY, campus correspondent; News-Times, Danbury, CT, former staff member; United Press International, Boston, MA, former staff member; Boston Globe, Boston, began as newsroom secretary, then reporter, became columnist, 1995, worked for nearly thirty years; Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, Professor of the Practice of Journalism, Director of the Journalism Program. Harvard University, Nieman Fellow, 1987-88; has appeared on local and national television programs.
AWARDS:Public Service Citation, Robert F. Kennedy Foundation, 1991; National Magazine Writing Award, Sigma Delta Chi, 1992, 1993; Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, 1997; Distinguished Writing Award, American Society of Newspaper Editors, 1997; Yankee Quill Award, Academy of New England Journalists, 2007; Brandeis Prize for Excellence in Teaching, 2011.
WRITINGS
Contributor to Cognoscenti.
SIDELIGHTS
Eileen McNamara is an American journalist, writer, and academic. She earned degrees from Barnard College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and went on to work for Danbury, Connecticut’s News-Times and United Press International in Boston. McNamara worked for nearly three decades with the Boston Globe, where she wrote on topics ranging from clergy sexual abuse to the U.S. Congress. In 1997 McNamara won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. This was followed in 2007 by winning the Academy of New England Journalists’ Yankee Quill Award. McNamara later became the Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Director of the Journalism Program at Brandeis University.
Breakdown
McNamara published her first book, Breakdown: Sex, Suicide, and the Harvard Psychiatrist, in 1994. The book looks into the life and scandal of psychiatrist Margaret Bean-Bayog and also the questionable techniques and ethics and ability to self-regulate in the field as a whole. Psychiatrist Bean-Bayog was accused by the family of her patient, Paul Lozano, for seducing him and treating him in an inappropriate manner. Lozano committed suicide shortly after she ended her treatment of him. In the book, McNamara covers Lozano’s depression since his childhood and looks into Bean-Bayog’s treatment techniques, where, after diagnosing him as a victim of childhood sexual abuse, took on the role of his mother while regressing Lozano to a three-year-old version of himself in order to reparent him. McNamara questions both Bean-Bayog’s diagnosis and the methods of her therapy before looking into the allegations of her sexual relations with him. In the end, Bean-Bayog resigned her medical license and settled out of court with the Lozano family without ever admitting any wrongdoing or seeking advice from her peers with the case.
A Kirkus Reviews contributor found the book to be “a well-researched and documented account of the breakdown of one fragile and deeply troubled human being and of the system that failed him.” Writing in the New York Times Book Review, Teresa Carpenter admitted that “Breakdown could have been just another headline-chasing hard cover. Ms. McNamara, however, uses the case as a springboard for a broader discussion of modern psychiatry, covering such issues as the dubious merits of “recovered memory” and biopsychiatry’s challenge to the talking cure. This is bound to upset adult victims of childhood sexual abuse, as well as defenders of regression therapy who will charge that Ms. McNamara set out to lynch Dr. Bean-Bayog,” who Carpenter claims “destroyed herself.” In a review in the IPT Journal website, LeRoy G. Schultz observed that “the book is mainly historical and well prepared, and describes a black page in the history of psychoanalysis.”
Eunice
McNamara published Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World in 2018. The biography looks into the life of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the fifth child of Joseph P. and Rose Kennedy and the sister of JFK. McNamara shows Eunice’s tenaciousness and determination, which overshadowed that of her more famous brothers. McNamara also posits that had Eunice been born male, she would have likely been encouraged to enter the political sphere. However, the book discusses a number of Eunice’s accomplishments, including her help in founding the Special Olympics. Eunice also influenced a number of JFK’s social programs, such as the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development. The biography also covers her work in the fields of teenage pregnancy, physical and intellectual disabilities, and juvenile delinquency. Additionally, McNamara highlights Eunice in her family roles as a wife to Peace Corps founding director Sargent Shriver, mother, daughter, and sister.
Writing in BookPage, Keith Herrell stated: “Audaciously titled or not, Eunice leaves no doubt that its subject truly changed the world.” In discussing the papers the Shriver family shared with McNamara in her writing of this account, Herrell opined: “Most amusing among the papers are Shriver’s notes to herself.” Booklist contributor Carol Haggas pointed out that McNamara applies “her journalistic prowess to produce a complete and detailed portrait of this spirited and magnetic activist.” A contributor to Publishers Weekly lauded that “McNamara’s book is an exemplary biography: thoroughly researched, beautifully written, and just the right length.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor described the book as being “a clearly written biography crammed full of memorable anecdotes about each of the Kennedys through four generations.”
Reviewing the book in Washington Post Book World, David Von Drehle noted that “a different mode of being a Kennedy was possible, however, and it shines through every page of Eileen McNamara’s new biography of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the family member who may, in time, prove to have been the most consequential one of all. In Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World, McNamara traces the revolution Shriver wrought in the lives of people with disabilities.” Writing in USA Today, Charisse Jones commented that “McNamara relies on letters, family records and the observations of Shriver’s acquaintances and family to sketch a nuanced portrait of a woman who was brusque yet charismatic, demanding and at times imperious, but also down-to-earth.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 1, 2018, Carol Haggas, review of Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World, p. 18.
BookPage, April 1, 2018, Keith Herrell, review of Eunice, p. 25.
Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 1994, review of Breakdown: Sex, Suicide, and the Harvard Psychiatrist; February 1, 2018, review of Eunice.
New York Times Book Review, April 10, 1994, Teresa Carpenter, review of Breakdown.
Publishers Weekly, February 19, 2018, review of Eunice, p. 66.
USA Today, April 11, 2018, Charisse Jones, review of Eunice, p. 3D.
Washington Post Book World, March 31, 2018, David Von Drehle, review of Eunice.
ONLINE
Brandeis University website, http://www.brandeis.edu/ (June 20, 2018), author profile.
IPT Journal, http://www.ipt-forensics.com/ (June 3, 2018), LeRoy G. Schultz, review of Breakdown.
Eileen McNamara
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Eileen McNamara
Born May 30, 1952 (age 66)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Spouse(s) Peter May
Children 3
Eileen McNamara (born May 30, 1952)[1] is an American journalist. She is the author of Eunice, The Kennedy Who Changed the World, to be published by Simon and Schuster, on April 3, 2018. She is chair of the Journalism Program at Brandeis University and formerly a columnist with the Boston Globe, where she won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1997.[2]
Life and career
A graduate of Barnard College (1974) and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism (1976), she was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard for the academic year 1987–88. She began her journalism career at Barnard as a campus correspondent for the Daily News in New York City before graduating to The News-Times of Danbury, CT and United Press International in Boston. Her nickname is "Mac".
During nearly 30 years at The Boston Globe, she covered everything from the night police beat to the United States Congress. First hired as a newsroom secretary, she worked her way up through the general assignment staff, the State House Bureau, the special projects team and the Sunday magazine staff to the position of columnist in 1995.
In addition to the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary (1997), she has been the recipient of writing and public service awards from the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Sigma Delta Chi, the Robert F. Kennedy Foundation and others for a reporting career that focused on social issues as infant mortality, domestic violence and juvenile crime. In 2007, she was named a winner of the Yankee Quill Award, the highest individual honor given by the Academy of New England Journalists.
She is married to sportswriter Peter May,[3] and is the mother of three adult children: Timothy, Patrick and Katherine.
A regular on local public affairs programs in Boston, she has also appeared on The Today Show, Larry King Live and Nightline. She appeared on The Daily Show on September 25, 2006.
McNamara is the author of two previous books: Breakdown: Sex, Suicide and the Harvard Psychiatrist (which was an Edgar Award finalist in 1994) and The Parting Glass: A Toast to the Traditional Pubs of Ireland (with photographer Eric Roth).
She contributed to the Boston Globe's coverage of the clergy sexual abuse scandal by recommending that the Spotlight Team look further into the cases she had reported on previously. In the 2015 film Spotlight, McNamara was played by actress Maureen Keiller. Spotlight won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2016.
Eileen McNamara
Eileen McNamara spent nearly thirty years as a journalist at The Boston Globe, where she won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary and was among the first to raise the alarm about clergy sexual abuse. She is now the director of the journalism program at Brandeis University. She is the author of Eunice, Breakdown, and The Parting Glass (with Eric Roth).
Eileen McNamara
Affiliations
Faculty: American Studies
Email Address
eileenma@brandeis.edu (eileenma)
Telephone
781-736-3049 (Office)
Office
Brown Social Science Center 321
Eileen McNamara
Professor of the Practice of Journalism
Eileen McNamara
eileenma@brandeis.edu
781-736-3049
Brown Social Science Center, 321
Departments/Programs
American Studies
Journalism
Degrees
Columbia University, M.S.
Barnard College, B.A.
Expertise
Journalism, society, and politics.
Profile
Eileen McNamara is Director of the Journalism Program at Brandeis and the author of Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World, published in April 2018 by Simon & Schuster. A Professor of the Practice of Journalism since 2007, she was previously an award-winning reporter and columnist for The Boston Globe, where she won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary and contributed to the coverage of the clergy sex abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston. Her writing continues to appear there and on Cognoscenti, the commentary pages of WBUR.org, Boston's National Public Radio station.
Courses Taught
AMST 137b Journalism in Twentieth-Century America
AMST 139b Race and Gender in the News
EL 10a Experiential Learning Practicum
JOUR 104a Political Packaging in America
JOUR 107b Media and Public Policy
JOUR 110b Ethics in Journalism
JOUR 138b The Contemporary World in Print
JOUR 145a Opinion Writing
Awards and Honors
Brandeis Prize for Excellence in Teaching (2011)
The Yankee Quill Award, The Academy of New England Journalists (2007)
Distinguished Writing Award, American Society of Newspaper Editors (1997)
Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, Emerson College (1997)
Pulitzer Prize for Commentary (1997)
Sigma Delta Chi, National Magazine Writing Award for "Death in Cell 103" (1993)
Sigma Delta Chi, National Magazine Writing Award for "When Children Kill" (1992)
Robert F. Kennedy Foundation, Public Service Citation for "Birth In The Death Zones" (1991)
Nieman Fellowship, Harvard University (1988)
Scholarship
McNamara, Eileen. Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018.
McNamara, Eileen/Eric Roth. The Parting Glass: A Toast To The Traditional Pubs of Ireland. Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2006.
McNamara, Eileen. Breakdown: Sex, Suicide and the Harvard Psychiatrist. Pocket Books, 1994.
McNamara, Eileen. Eye on the President George Bush: History in Essays & Cartoons (Abortion Essay). Chronos Publishing, 1993.
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Print Marked Items
EUNICE
Keith Herrell
BookPage.
(Apr. 2018): p25+.
COPYRIGHT 2018 BookPage
http://bookpage.com/
Full Text:
EUNICE
By Eileen McNamara
Simon & Schuster $28, 416 pages ISBN 9781451642261 Audio, eBook available
BIOGRAPHY
If you're sitting down with the audaciously titled Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World by Pulitzer
Prize-winning journalist Eileen McNamara, you may find yourself exhausted by vicariously participating in
the life of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the woman who most famously founded the Special Olympics but also
served as cheerleader-in-chief for the Kennedy political dynasty.
Shriver, the fifth of nine children born to Joseph Kennedy Sr. and his wife, Rose, never stopped working for
the causes she believed in. The book's full title serves as a pointed reminder that had she been a man,
Shriver would have been fully encouraged to ascend to the political heights achieved by her male family
members, such as her brother, John F. Kennedy.
The Kennedys have fiercely controlled their family's reputation, making honest biographies a challenge. But
following Shriver's death at 88 in 2009, members of the Shriver family provided Mc-Namara with access to
33 boxes of private papers that open a window into a remarkable life, warts and all. Most amusing among
the papers are Shriver's notes to herself, including tips on how to make small talk at the many parties she
attended.
But access isn't everything, and McNamara wields a deft touch as she recounts Shriver's role in the Special
Olympics and extending rights for the developmentally disabled, which was surely influenced by the tragic
story of her older sister Rosemary, who was born with intellectual disabilities and sent out of public view
after a botched lobotomy. Audaciously titled or not, Eunice leaves no doubt that its subject truly changed
the world.
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Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Herrell, Keith. "EUNICE." BookPage, Apr. 2018, p. 25+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A532528595/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=97cd4974.
Accessed 3 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A532528595
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Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the
World
Carol Haggas
Booklist.
114.13 (Mar. 1, 2018): p18+.
COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World. By Eileen McNamara. Apr. 2018.416p. illus. Simon &
Schuster, $28 (9781451642261). 973.922092.
Indefatigable. Indomitable. Unflagging. Tenacious. It would take a thesaurus of accolade to adequately
describe Eunice Kennedy Shriver's approach to life. The fifth of Joseph P and Rose Kennedy's nine
children, Eunice's fierce determination rivaled that of her more famous siblings, Jack, Bobby, and Ted,
whom she could "out-vigah" in a family known for its dynamism and determination. Though equally as
committed to grand causes as her politically enshrined brothers, Eunice's gender often relegated her to the
sidelines, giving rise to the misperception that she merely played a supporting role in missions for which
she was actually the driving force. Her zeal for social reform in the handling of juvenile delinquency and
teen pregnancy vied for equal attention with her pet project, increasing awareness of physical and
intellectual disabilities, which resulted in the founding of the Special Olympics. Along with providing
insights into Eunice's roles as wife, mother, sister, and daughter, McNamara uses her journalistic prowess to
produce a complete and detailed portrait of this spirited and magnetic activist.--Carol Haggas
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Haggas, Carol. "Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World." Booklist, 1 Mar. 2018, p. 18+. General
OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A532250805/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f2b10803. Accessed 3 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A532250805
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Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the
World
Publishers Weekly.
265.8 (Feb. 19, 2018): p66+.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World
Eileen McNamara. Simon & Schuster, $28
(416p) ISBN 978-1-4516-4226-1
Does Eunice Kennedy Shriver (1921-2009), the fifth of Joseph and Rose Kennedy's nine children, deserve a
full-fledged biography? McNamara, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at the Boston Globe, answers with a
resounding yes. Spurred by the virtual loss of her intellectually disabled sister Rosemary, whom Joseph had
lobotomized in 1941, and who then "disappeared" from the family, Shriver became a relentless campaigner
for those similarly disabled. She helped expand the Special Olympics into an international organization,
persuaded her brother John to establish a National Institute on Child Health and Human Development, and
funded programs through the Kennedy Foundation. McNamara also portrays a deeply devout Catholic
dedicated to "being an instrument of God's will on earth"; a woman happily married to Sargent Shriver, the
founding director of the Peace Corps; and an often engaged (though sometimes absent) mother. While the
author clearly admires her subject, this is no hagiography; Shriver can come across as arrogant and entitled,
among other flaws. McNamara's book is an exemplary biography: thoroughly researched, beautifully
written, and just the right length. It deserves a wide readership. Agent: Colleen Mohyde, the Doe Coover
Agency. (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World." Publishers Weekly, 19 Feb. 2018, p. 66+. General
OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A529357558/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=551edc47. Accessed 3 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A529357558
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McNamara, Eileen: EUNICE
Kirkus Reviews.
(Feb. 1, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
McNamara, Eileen EUNICE Simon & Schuster (Adult Nonfiction) $28.00 4, 3 ISBN: 978-1-4516-4226-1
A convincing argument that Eunice Kennedy Shriver (1921-2009), the fifth of nine Kennedy children,
changed the world in ways at least as significant as her more-famous relatives.
Pulitzer Prize-winning former Boston Globe journalist McNamara (Director, Journalism/Brandeis Univ.;
Breakdown: Sex, Suicide, and the Harvard Psychiatrist, 1994, etc.) makes a compelling case that Eunice
Kennedy's primary crusade, on behalf of millions of citizens with cognitive disabilities, succeeded greatly
as a civil rights movement, altering lives for the better not only for the disabled, but also for their families.
Eunice received inspiration for the crusade from her parents' treatment of daughter Rosemary, a cognitively
disabled girl--and later, woman--hidden away in asylums, forced to undergo a lobotomy, and lied about to
the public to protect the burnished Kennedy family image. The powerful and ruthless Kennedy patriarch,
Joseph P., made the major decisions regarding Rosemary, and Joseph's wife, Rose, gave in to her husband.
McNamara demonstrates, however, that Eunice, John F., Robert, and all the other Kennedy siblings were
complicit in the heartless treatment and public charade. Riddled by guilt and driven to accomplish her
reform goals, Eunice influenced JFK to push Congress for legislation to improve the treatment of the
cognitively disabled and fund research into causes and cures. That legislation won approval in 1963, shortly
before the president's assassination. In 1962, Eunice created Camp Shriver, which eventually became the
Special Olympics in 1968. In each chapter, the author amply spotlights the formidable nature of Eunice,
who refused to accept no for an answer when she spearheaded a crusade. In fact, McNamara learned, the
word most often used to describe Eunice was "formidable."
A clearly written biography crammed full of memorable anecdotes about each of the Kennedys through four
generations, about Eunice's influential husband, Sargent Shriver, and about dozens more characters from
domestic politics, international diplomacy, and high society.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"McNamara, Eileen: EUNICE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Feb. 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A525461611/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=43c07419.
Accessed 3 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A525461611
The Kennedy with the biggest impact might not be Jack, Bobby or Ted
David Von Drehle
The Washington Post. (Mar. 31, 2018): News:
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Full Text:
Byline: David Von Drehle
Joseph Kennedy used to tell his nine children that it doesn't matter who you are. It only matters who people think you are. Not a bad motto for America's most famous family. The battle to control the Kennedy image has waxed and waned for most of the past century, but the field has never fallen entirely silent.
A case in point: "Chappaquiddick" opens in movie theaters April 6. The film offers a critical dramatization of a very low moment in the family's history: the summer night in 1969 when Sen. Edward Kennedy, sole surviving son of the patriarch, drove his Oldsmobile off a bridge near Martha's Vineyard, leading to the death of his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne.
Friends of the Kennedys have denounced the film as a mixture of fact and conjecture, but if some guesswork was necessary in re-creating the tragedy, Team Kennedy shares the blame. Nothing about Ted Kennedy's behavior in the hours, days, years or decades after that terrible plunge evinced any interest in having the whole truth come out.
That's one of several ways Chappaquiddick - the wreck if not the film - continues to illuminate this strange and compelling family. The whole truth was never a priority for them, whether they were casting cold Rose Kennedy as the ultimate mother figure, or hiding the horrible results of Rosemary Kennedy's ill-advised lobotomy, or covering up John F. Kennedy's parlous physical condition and dangerous womanizing.
Ted Kennedy's shift into damage-control mode the moment he escaped from the submerged car is not a mystery to be unraveled; it was a characteristic family reflex. Much as the recklessness that caused the crash was both an echo and a portent of Kennedy carelessness past and future.
And in this #MeToo moment, it's worth noting who paid the highest price for this recklessness and dishonesty. Kopechne lost not only her life but also her reputation. She was one of a group of bright, able, college-educated young women who coordinated the delegate-counting operations for Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign, so integral that she helped write his announcement speech.
But because of the way Washington, and the Kennedys specifically, treated and talked about women, these promising young political operatives were dubbed "the Boiler Room Girls." And when one of the "girls" ended up dead in Ted Kennedy's car, she entered history not as a former teacher and civil rights worker, nor as the brains of a U.S. Senate campaign in Colorado, but simply as further female flotsam in the wake of the Kennedy men.
Another of the campaign alumnae who gathered that night at the island, Boston attorney Nance Lyons, reflected on this injustice as part of a 2008 oral history. "Chappaquiddick changed my life," she said. "The women who had had significant responsibility in the national campaign for Bobby Kennedy were portrayed as 'girls' of no significance - even as 'party' girls. It was humiliating - but no one bothered to set the record straight."
A different mode of being a Kennedy was possible, however, and it shines through every page of Eileen McNamara's new biography of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the family member who may, in time, prove to have been the most consequential one of all. In "Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World," McNamara traces the revolution Shriver wrought in the lives of people with disabilities.
Skillfully wielding the familiar Kennedy tool kit - money, energy, celebrity and connections - the fifth child and third daughter of Joe and Rose Kennedy built a day camp in her backyard into the global movement called Special Olympics. Next March in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, more than 7,000 athletes are expected to compete before crowds numbering a half million, in the first Special Olympics ever held in the Middle East.
Beyond that, the relentless Shriver catalyzed much of the public and private research over the past six decades into developmental disabilities and how to cope with them. In no small part through her efforts, the average life span of a child born with Down syndrome more than tripled, from 19 years to 60.
She achieved all this in the context of a happy marriage to a devoted husband, with room enough to be an energetic (though sometimes distant and demanding) mother to her own large family.
Shriver came to recognize that she, too, was a victim of the family's misogyny. ("If that girl had been born with balls, she would have been one hell of a politician," her father told a friend, obliviously.) And yet, as McNamara notes, there was no more formidable guardian of the Kennedy image than Shriver herself. "The transparency that history requires was of less import" to her "than the preservation of the myth," McNamara writes.
Taken together, the film and the book repudiate the patriarch's skewed lesson. It mattered very much who Ted Kennedy was at Chappaquiddick, and will matter who Eunice Kennedy was next year in Abu Dhabi.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Von Drehle, David. "The Kennedy with the biggest impact might not be Jack, Bobby or Ted." Washington Post, 31 Mar. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A533000324/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=9983a374. Accessed 3 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A533000324
'Eunice' is a revelation in Kennedy family story
Charisse Jones
USA Today. (Apr. 11, 2018): Lifestyle: p03D.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/
Full Text:
Byline: Charisse Jones, USA TODAY
It is hard to believe that we don't know all there is to know about the Kennedys. Yet we are once again in a moment when pop culture taps into America's endless fascination with the political dynasty.
A CNN series is now airing about the famous family, and a new feature film, Chappaquiddick, chronicling the events surrounding the car accident that led to the death of Mary Jo Kopechne and derailed Ted Kennedy's presidential ambitions is in theaters.
Still, those projects tend to focus on the men. Which is why Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World (Simon & Schuster, 416. pp., ***1/2) is, in many ways, a revelation.
Many likely recognize Eunice Kennedy Shriver as the founder of and force behind the Special Olympics. But in this new biography, author and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Eileen McNamara reveals with meticulous detail and matter-of-fact prose Shriver's relentless drive, nervous energy and lifelong efforts to affirm the dignity and abilities of those with special needs.
McNamara relies on letters, family records and the observations of Shriver's acquaintances and family to sketch a nuanced portrait of a woman who was brusque yet charismatic, demanding and at times imperious, but also down-to-earth.
We learn that Shriver, the middle child among the Kennedy siblings, was perhaps the most like John F. Kennedy, the brother she adored and with whom she had the strongest bond.
While it is well-known that Robert Kennedy was a close confidante of his older brother, Shriver was also an informal adviser to the president, frequently popping by the White House to share her opinions and priorities.
Eunice does not make a clear declaration that Shriver's activism was solely driven by feelings of concern and guilt about Rosemary, the Kennedy sister who was developmentally delayed and then permanently crippled after her father made the decision to have her undergo a prefrontal lobotomy in 1941.
But we learn that Eunice is the one who would play with Rosemary. And she would honor Rosemary's life by ensuring that others with similar capabilities were nurtured, respected and included.
Eunice also highlights Shriver's other passions. While fighting for better treatment of those with special needs was her primary focus, Shriver was no less a champion for women and young people who had been incarcerated, advocating that they be seen, mentored and given second chances.
In the midst of it all, she raised five children. She died on Aug. 11, 2009, at age 88.
Eunice offers glimpses of iconic events, such as how Shriver knelt dry-eyed to pray when she learned JFK had been assassinated. But those much chronicled points are not dwelt upon.
Because this is Eunice's story.
It's about time.
CAPTION(S):
photo Jennifer Szymaszek/AP
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Jones, Charisse. "'Eunice' is a revelation in Kennedy family story." USA Today, 11 Apr. 2018, p. 03D. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A534379634/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7564c005. Accessed 3 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A534379634
"BREAKDOWN: SEX, SUICIDE, AND THE HARVARD PSYCHIATRIST"
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KIRKUS REVIEW
A thoughtful examination of the headline-making Bean-Baylog/Lozano case that raises serious questions about psychiatric standards, unorthodox psychotherapeutic techniques, and the ability of the medical community to regulate itself. A staff writer for Boston Globe Magazine, McNamara had the cooperation of the Lozano family in her investigation of the story, but not that of Margaret Bean-Bayog. The Lozano family charged that psychiatrist Bean-Bayog seduced and inappropriately treated Paul Lozano, who committed suicide several months after she had terminated his treatment. McNamara traces Lozano's life from childhood in Ohio and Texas to Harvard Medical School, where the gifted young Chicano felt very much an outsider and where his constant depression led him to seek psychiatric help. Bean-Bayog, diagnosing him as a victim of childhood sexual abuse, devised an unusual re-parenting therapy in which she regressed Lozano to the age of three and took on the role of his loving mother. McNamara asks the right questions: Was Bean-Bayog's diagnosis properly made? Was her therapy a legitimate one? Did she become too involved with her patient? Did she in fact have sexual relations with him? McNamara concludes that Bean-Bayog failed her patient and that professional arrogance kept her from seeking proper consultations with her peers in managing a difficult case. In the end, Bean-Bayog resigned her medical license without admitting any wrongdoing, and the Lozano family dropped its malpractice suit against her for a $1 million out-of-court settlement. The larger questions of accountability and acceptable standards of care in psychiatric treatment remain unanswered. A well-researched and documented account of the breakdown of one fragile and deeply troubled human being and of the system that failed him.
Pub Date: April 1st, 1994
Page count: 304pp
Publisher: Pocket Books/Simon & Schuster
ARCHIVES | 1994
Therapy or Seduction?
By TERESA CARPENTER
BREAKDOWN Sex, Suicide, and the Harvard Psychiatrist. By Eileen McNamara.
Illustrated. 289 pp. New York: Pocket Books. $22.
IN the summer of 1986 Paul Lozano, a promising Mexican-American medical
student at Harvard University, sought treatment for depression from a psychiatrist
named Margaret Bean-Bayog. Their sessions ran on for four fitful years before she
terminated his treatment in July 1990. Despondent, he finally committed suicide in
April 1991.
Lozano might have been written off quietly as a man too sick to be saved. But his
family found among his belongings notes in Dr. Bean-Bayog's hand addressed to
"the boy" from "Mom." They also discovered more than 50 photocopied pages of her
handwritten sadomasochistic fantasies. They filed a medical malpractice suit that
placed the Harvard-affiliated psychiatrist at the center of a furious debate between
those who denounced her as a predatory crackpot and others who defended her as a
heroic doctor who tried to reach an untreatable psychotic with innovative therapies.
"Breakdown: Sex, Suicide, and the Harvard Psychiatrist," its lurid title
notwithstanding, makes a serious attempt to arrive at the truth in this strange case.
Eileen McNamara, a staff writer for The Boston Globe Magazine, has drawn upon
3,000 pages of medical records, postcards, notes and letters, as well as interviews
with the dead man's family and Dr. Bean-Bayog's colleagues. (Dr. Bean-Bayog, who
agreed to pay $1 million and gave up her license rather than face trial, declined to be
interviewed.) The result is a fascinating glimpse of psychiatry without its blinds
drawn.
Dr. Bean-Bayog's particular brand of therapy, as characterized by Ms.
McNamara, seems to have been based on the theories of Sandor Ferenczi, a
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colleague of Freud, who felt psychic damage incurred in infancy could be undone by
figuratively taking a patient back to the nursery and, in effect, reparenting him. Early
in Lozano's treatment, Dr. B., as she styled herself, concluded -- on the basis of no
empirical evidence -- that her patient had been sexually abused by his mother. Her
notes seem to indicate that it was she who planted the suggestion in Lozano's mind.
With role-playing games and flashcards, the author writes, she reduced him to the
emotional age of 3, the better to cure him.
The mother-son relationship became murkier as doctor and patient developed a
physical attraction to each other. Dr. Bean-Bayog has categorically denied that she
ever slept with Lozano. But he told another psychiatrist that she read him
descriptions of her sexual fantasies. This erotica, she has explained, did not
represent her own yearnings but her attempt to place her countertransference into
what one colleague has called "a scientific framework."
Freud would probably have blanched at this scene. He feared Ferenczi's method
might place the needs of the doctor above those of the patient. Indeed, Ms.
McNamara makes a compelling argument that Dr. Bean-Bayog, a childless woman
who had suffered nine miscarriages, probably did use Paul Lozano as a surrogate
child. Sadly, one of the reasons she allegedly gave him for terminating therapy was
that she had decided to adopt a baby of her own.
What safeguards, if any, exist to protect patients from a doctor's human frailty?
Even by psychiatry's own vague standards, Ms. McNamara says, Dr. Bean-Bayog
should have consulted her peers before undertaking such an unusual treatment. (She
apparently did discuss Lozano with colleagues but withheld the more bizarre aspects
of his therapy.) The author charges that the medical profession is scandalously lax
about policing its own. The Massachusetts State Board of Registration in Medicine
had been alerted to possible improprieties in Dr. Bean-Bayog's methods, but did not
look into them until after the suicide.
The author faults the Boston psychiatric establishment for rallying tribally to Dr.
Bean-Bayog's defense without benefit of the facts. Her champions said that she had
exhausted conventional methods before resorting to radical ones, that Lozano had
planted the salacious materials in an attempt to destroy her, that the Lozanos were
steeped in a culture where mothers "routinely masturbate children." Ms. McNamara
examines each of these claims and deftly discredits them.
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"Breakdown" could have been just another headline-chasing hard cover. Ms.
McNamara, however, uses the case as a springboard for a broader discussion of
modern psychiatry, covering such issues as the dubious merits of "recovered
memory" and biopsychiatry's challenge to the talking cure. This is bound to upset
adult victims of childhood sexual abuse, as well as defenders of regression therapy
who will charge that Ms. McNamara set out to lynch Dr. Bean-Bayog. That was
unnecessary. Dr. B. destroyed herself.
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A version of this biography; review appears in print on April 10, 1994, on Page 7007010 of the National
edition with the headline: Therapy or Seduction?.
© 2018 The New York Times Company
Title: Breakdown: Sex, Suicide, and the Harvard Psychiatrist Neutral Review
Author: Eileen McNamara
Publisher: Pocket Books
Pocket Books
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
$22.00
Description:
This account of sexual impropriety and the psychiatrist's assumption that her client had repressed childhood sexual abuse was written by a reporter for the Boston Globe Magazine. The book is mainly historical and well prepared, and describes a black page in the history of psychoanalysis. The book provides a detailed account of Dr. Margaret Bean-Bayag masturbating in front of her client, having sexual intercourse twice with her client, and prematurely diagnosing child sexual abuse by the client's mother while he was in his crib. McNamara describes her book as a "cautionary tale about the fragility of the human mind, the imprecision of psychiatry, the cavalier diagnosis of childhood abuse and use of unorthodox therapeutic techniques" (p.273). Dr. Bean-Bayag took, as gospel truth, the literature she had read on childhood sexual abuse, recycling myths as if they were facts. The book closes with a good set of references, no index, and an informal guide to the book's research methods.
Discussion:
The client committed suicide and his family sued Dr. Bean-Bayag for $1 million and won. Bean-Bayag resigned from the Harvard Medical School and surrendered her medical license.
Among the malpractice issues were:
(1) She did not report her suspicions of sexual abuse to the Welfare Department as required by Massachusetts law.
(2) She never attempted to validate her suspicions of sexual abuse by talking to the mother even though she had the chance to do so.
(3) She did not truly comprehend Mexican culture and child-rearing practices.
(4) She ordered her client not to talk to his family.
(5) She did not manage erotic transference well and ended up having intercourse with her client in her home along with taking photographs.
(6) She used a new unorthodox form of treatment called reparenting.
The client stole Bean-Bayag's written account of her sexual fantasies (55 handwritten pages) from an unlocked desk. After his 4th hospitalization for depression, she terminated him from therapy. The client spoke to a hospital social worker who contacted the Massachusetts Board of Medicine. The social worker got no more referrals from the establishment as she was identified as a whistle blower. She was later accused of violating the client's confidentiality by the local chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.
Bean-Bayag's treatment records were criticized for their lack of empirical supporting data. The author also raises interesting but unanswered questions about her sexual abuse claim and inappropriate (reparenting) treatment. Bean-Bayag maintained that her sexual activity with the client was part of the transference process and was scientifically supported.
The Social Service Department of Wyandot County, Ohio (where the client was raised) claimed they had no record of child abuse and felt Bean-Bayag's theory of sex abuse was "ludicrous" (p. 215). The family received grief therapy after the suicide and eventually returned to Mexico, claiming that American life was hazardous to Mexican children. Bean-Bayag, without a license, opened a private practice in her home with a big caseload of women well-wishers.
Reviewed by LeRoy G. Schultz, Professor Emeritus of Social Work, West Virginia University, Morganstown, West Virginia.