The operation of both the master system and the component systems varies according to demands at a particular time. Thus, specific primal responses to life-threatening situations (such as fight, flight, freeze, or faint) will differ from each other as well as from responses involved in feeding and breeding--even though the same system is employed. Emergencies involve total mobilization of all systems for action; whereas in feeding, certain subsystems are activated, and others deactivated. In flight, for instance, the motor apparatus and the sympathetic subsystems are highly activated, and the parasympathetic subsystem is largely deactivated; whereas in feeding, the parasympathetic is selectively activated, and the motor apparatus is selectively deactivated.

Under ordinary conditions there is smooth coordination of the various systems as the organism switches flexibly from one function to another depending on the demands of the situation and of the master program. The specific operations of the systems and the subsystems vary from one moment to the next in accordance with the operating programs.

Integrated responses generally make sense in terms of situational requirements and thus appear to be controlled by a reality-oriented program. Suppose we see a bear, a baby, and a mosquito. We do not hug the bear, swat the baby, or run away from the mosquito (see Leventhal 1982). The operation of our apparatus proceeds according to a comprehensible design, not mindlessly or at random but under the control of the perceptualcognitive component. The cognitive system integrates input, selects an appropriate plan, and thus activates the rest of the apparatus. The cognitive apparatus draws on the eyes and ears and other sense organs to construct meaningful patterns at the perceptual level. We hear and see relationships rather than absolute sounds and light-waves. (In fact, we do not have receptors for all the stimuli in the environment and integrate only a small proportion of them.) The relationships or patterns likely to be most salient are those that are relevant to our "vital interests"--for example, survival and sex. Hence, in understanding anxiety disorders, we should think of the symptoms not as foreign experiences but as expressions of basic (primal) psychological functions.

In terms of our present focus, then, we can say that in the presence of a threat, the cognitive apparatus makes selective appraisals of the environmental configurations and the available coping resources, determines whether there is a clear and present danger, and sets in motion the sequence of affective, behavioral, and physiological subsystems. The affective component--in this case, anxiety--serves to speed up the reaction by enhancing the sense of urgency. The behavioral component consists of both activated action patterns and inhibitions. The physiological system includes the autonomic components that "service" somatic mobilization. . .

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