This is Part 1 in a six-part series exploring how Plato's ancient philosophy offers a neurologically grounded map for understanding and healing trauma.

A veteran scans every room for exits, catalogs potential threats, and maintains tactical awareness even at his daughter's birthday party. A police officer can't turn off the hypervigilance when she gets home, and treats her husband's questions like interrogations. A woman who survived years of emotional abuse reads micro-expressions obsessively, predicting her new partner's mood shifts before they happen.

Different lives. Same pattern.

They tell me some version of: "I can't turn it off."

And I think: Why would they? They've achieved mastery.

This is what I've encountered repeatedly in 20 years of clinical practice. My clients with the most sophisticated trauma responses aren't the ones stuck in primitive fear. They've developed elaborate, coherent, systematic understandings of threat and safety. They've achieved what looks like wisdom—just wisdom about the wrong world.

I know something about organizing around fire-principle that goes beyond clinical observation. In January 2023, I........

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