This is the fifth in our conversation on past trauma. Although the link between past and present is not fully understood, a picture is emerging of a biologically vulnerable brain being rendered even more vulnerable by horrific events, making us sitting ducks for even routine stresses in our daily lives. Our brains become oversensitized to the point where our entire world feels unsafe. The Freudian view of mental illness was that our strange and often scary behaviors were maladaptive reactions...