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A constructive dialogue between biological and psychological psychiatrists is very much needed. The separation between these two major branches has resulted in a polarization that isolates the rich data base of one branch from the other. An integration is essential in order to head off the eroding effects that will surely ensue if each discipline ignores the findings of the other. This paper is offered as a contribution to an integration; it represents my observations and conclusions on how psychological phenomena articulate with biology.
When a perceived stimulus is believed to be inimical to an individual's best interests, defensive behaviors are evoked. Such stimuli may include rejection, hostility, envy, actual or threat of injury, or the loss of a valued object, function or relationship—in brief, anything believed to be harmful. Beliefs that one will be harmed may be held at a conscious or unconscious level triggering defensive behavior that may be biological and/or psychological. Anxiety, rage and inhibition constitute the major biological defenses. Anxiety is an acute hyper-mobilization of basic physiological resources preparatory to meeting a threat and includes such well known physiological signs as increased heart rate and respiration, increased blood pressure and an unpleasant feeling which we designate as anxiety. Rage is also a hypermobilization of the basic resources that prepare an individual for engaging with threat; the goal is to annihilate it. Anxiety and rage are excitatory events while inhibition terminates behavior sensed as leading to danger. Inhibition is automatic and not under volitional control. It may be compared to brakes that go on automatically when a train passes a red signal. Psychologically determined impotence in a male is a good example of inhibition. In such cases, normal erectile responses consequent