The authors postulate that the old phylogenetic mechanism prompting depression is protective in nature and as with pain, triggers a cascade of defensive reactions. When persistent however, such reactions reinforced by negative social factors are activated in a way comparable to apoptosis. The result is destruction of the ''self '' in a process we term Thanatosis (Wasilewski B., 2004)

Depression as a defence mechanism Contemporary disorders of human functionality within the family, workplace, local communities and the global community leads to the pathological activation of mechanisms which originally bene ited the individual but now prompt the emergence of anxiety and depressive disorders. Anxiety is an old phylogenetic protective mechanism invoked during the process of socialization, but which in a pathological environmental context develops a pathogenic pro ile. A similar situation occurs in the case of depressive symptoms, which originally constituted a defence mechanism to muster the human, biological and psychological resources of the individual to combat the original adverse condition. It also recruited people in the immediate environment to assist one's own efforts. Depressive symptoms usually occur together in association with somatic diseases and a signi icant percentage of patients require parallel psychotropic treatment [1]. Despite many years of research, the mechanism of depression and its nosological classi ication are still unclear [2]. The authors consider that the main barrier to understanding the phenomenon of depression is the dominance of the medical gaze where depression is viewed as a disease associated with pathological change in the body. The authors posit that most cases of depression, including those associated with somatic disturbances are manifestations of physiological adaptive mechanisms that herald the imminence of ill-health.

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