This is Part 2 of a 6-part series on Platonic psychology and trauma healing. In Part 1, we explored Plato's divided line (COLA: Conjecture, Opinion, Logic, Abstraction) and how it maps onto brain architecture from brainstem to prefrontal cortex.

Here's where most people read Plato. They think the cave allegory maps simply onto the divided line: inside the cave equals the lower levels (Conjecture and Opinion), outside equals the higher levels (Logic and Abstraction).

I want to propose a different interpretation, one I haven't found in the scholarly literature but that makes profound sense clinically and philosophically. What if all four levels exist both inside and outside the cave?

Picture it: prisoners chained from childhood, watching shadows dance on the wall before them, cast by firelight from behind.

Conjecture: The shadows themselves. Flickering images that captivate attention.

Opinion: The puppets and props are creating those shadows. The physical objects the prisoners could touch if they turned around.

Logic: The light and warmth from the fire—systematic understanding of how the fire's emanations create and organize cave-reality, the mechanics of shadow-projection, the patterns of light and heat distribution.

Abstraction: The fire itself. The organizing principle that unifies and explains everything in cave-reality.

Here's what this reading reveals: Someone can achieve Level A sophistication inside the cave. They can become expert at shadow-prediction, can develop........

© Psychology Today