Jackie Kennedy: PTSD and a Remarkable Fighting Spirit

In July 1964, Jackie Kennedy visited her mother and stepfather, Janet and Hugh Auchincloss, at the family’s homestead, Hammersmith Farm in Newport. She was suffering greatly. It had been just eight months since she witnessed the murder of her husband, John F. Kennedy, in Dallas on November 22, 1963. One afternoon during this visit, Jackie dragged herself down to the beach to join Janet and her son (Jackie’s half-brother), Jamie Auchincloss, under an umbrella. She looked dreadful, medicated, and hungover. Janet was as annoyed as she was worried. “Jacqueline,” she began—and this is according to Jamie’s memory of the conversation—“we’ve...