The human brain, an organ of breathtaking complexity, is our central command center. Weighing just under 1.5 kilograms, it houses over 86 billion neurons. These neurons communicate across an intricate network of regions responsible for our thoughts, emotions, memories, and actions. But when we ask ourselves why certain patterns of suffering repeat, why some emotional wounds feel bottomless, or why we can’t “think our way out” of despair, we must look beneath cognition into the realm of trauma. To understand trauma, we must first understand the architecture of the brain.