What disorder does Robert Kennedy Jr. have?

[Buddyblazon]

I first heard him a few years ago on AAR (isn't it nice to say "a few years ago" and AAR in the same sentence?).

I am just wondering what he suffers from that makes his voice the way it is. He is obviously a brilliant man. Everytime I hear him, he just nails it.

But I've been trying to figure out what it is that makes him sound like he's about to run out of breath.

I know somebody here has to know.

[Catch22Dem]

1. Spasmodic dysphonia

Same as Diane Rehm.

[spindrifter]

2. Thanks. I

had wondered about Diane Rehm's voice. I think it is terrific that she is the radio personality that she is with such a major voice problem.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

8. She has not always had it

She once had a fantastic voice quality. Although I think it great she continues, sometimes it hurts me to hear her so.

[Buddyblazon]

3. Thank you...

[tom22]

5. For what it is worth:

I remember his father's voice and miss it more than words can express.

[Downtown Hound]

4. Got to admire the guy for being willing to make the talk show run

at all, especially with a condition like that.

[987654321]

6. On the one hand...

His voice is somewhat troublesome for his desire to get his message out. However, those who would get so fixated on the way he spoke rather than listening to his message probably wouldn't get it anyway.

Even with his speech difficulties, I find him to be extremely bright and articulate and the content of what he says always has value. Perhaps having his voice difficulties has helped him to focus more on the words he chooses so he doesn't waste any on things that don't matter.

[riderinthestorm]

7. Diane Rehm's questions and comments are also that precise

Every word matters. The level of intelligence required to ensure each nuance and thought are imparted without misunderstanding despite the vocal difficulties, day after day, is staggering.

I find that I quickly, completely, tune out the voice problems of both Diane Rehm and RFK when their conversations are so engaging.

[987654321]

9. Me too!

When I first started listening to her I felt bad for her that she had that problem. But once I became an avid listener of her program, my respect for he grew to the point that I felt bad for myself that I couldn't speak as clearly, intelligently and thoughtfully as her. She's just amazing, and I don't even notice a voice problem anymore.

[Wheres The Beef]

10. I think it's a family trait

- Joe's oldest daughter, Rosemary, was considered shy and mentally limited - symptoms of what many suspect was dyslexia. For years the family had dealt with the problem by sending her away to various special schools and convents. By age twenty-one she had deteriorated greatly, giving way to tantrums, rages and violent behavior. Rosemary was beginning to understand that she would never measure up to her closest siblings, and the resulting frustration led to physical fights and, worse, long absences at night when she would be wandering the streets.- Increasingly, Rosemary was seen as a liability to the family's political ambitions, and in1942, Joe moved to deal with the problem. Without telling anyone, not ever her mother, he arranged for his oldest daughter to have a prefrontal lobotomy at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C. The experimental operation was believed to work wonders with people who had emotional problems. In Rosemary's case it was a disaster and left her permanently disabled, paralyzed on one side, incontinent and unable to speak coherently. She was never allowed to return home, but instead was spirited away to St. Coletta's School in Wisconsin.
- Rosemary's fate and how it was handled was the ultimate Kennedy deception. As late as 1958 the family was maintaining the fiction that Rosemary had become a quasi nun in Wisconsin, content to renounce the glamorous world of her siblings to teach less fortunate children. Today the official family version is that she was born retarded, and that only her mother's herculean efforts had made it possible for her to appear normal.