The Weight of History: How Trauma Might Be Informing Our Leadership in Public Health
It Is Time We Talk About RFK Jr.'s Personal History and How It Might Be Making History
Author's Note: While I have conducted research in the fields of substance use disorders and neuroscience, this article is not intended to diagnose RFK Jr. with any condition, nor am I qualified to do so as I am not a physician. Rather, this article aims to foster discussion about how a public figure's self-disclosed history of substance use and trauma may contribute to emotional and cognitive challenges that become particularly concerning when that individual is making public policy decisions that appear counterproductive—decisions not grounded in data, science, expertise, or experience.
The Neuroscience of Leadership: Assessing RFK Jr.'s Fitness for Health Secretary
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. carries trauma few Americans can comprehend. At nine, he watched his nation mourn President John F. Kennedy, gunned down in Dallas. Five years later, as a fourteen-year-old at Georgetown Prep, he learned his father too had been shot in a Los Angeles hotel kitchen after winning the California Democratic primary. Young Bobby flew to California on Vice President Humphrey's plane, arriving to find his father clinging to life. He was there when Robert F. Kennedy died, and days later served as pallbearer at Arlington National Cemetery.
These aren't historical footnotes—they're formative traumas that neuroscience shows reshape the developing brain in profound ways. The question facing America isn't whether these experiences affected Kennedy, but how they might influence his capacity to lead the Department of Health and Human Services through modern public health challenges.
The human brain at fourteen is still forming crucial connections. The prefrontal cortex—responsible for executive decision-making, impulse control, and complex reasoning—doesn't fully mature until the mid-twenties. When development occurs against repeated, severe trauma, the neural architecture adapts in ways that persist for decades.
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