let me see if i remember all the big-fangled words....
the brain first forms as the reptillian brain - then adds some more, then adds the frontal lobes last.

when we experience trauma, that trauma gets stored in the reptillian brain - not the frontal lobes where our regular memories are. there's words like the migdula or something similiar and the hypothamus... i can't remember what they do but they are all a part of it. I took a 2 weekend intensive class on this stuff. What i do remember most from that is that trauma can take anywhere from 3-10 years to heal in therapy (and as we all know, therapy can last a lot longer than that).