Doctors would have to describe to her, in great detail, the foetus and its physical functions.
"If you capture enough information, you can use software to perform the physical functions of the camera.
In the words of the psychoanalyst Adam Phillips, it's the "imaginative elaboration of physical functions".
For Janet this was a psycho-biological phenomenon that involved both "ideas" and physical "functions".
Urination and defecation are physical functions, like sweating and digestion, that happen below our consciousness, and are controlled by the autonomic nervous system.
Although it is not hard to get a sound out of the clarinet, to do it well requires a complex set of physical functions.
Since the first case of C.J.D. was diagnosed in the mid-1990's, 85 Britons have contracted the illness, which eats holes in the brain and causes dementia and the progressive loss of all physical functions.
And this extends from apparently innocent practices like expecting presents from Santa Claus and teaching them childish euphemisms for physical functions, to the inculcation of religious beliefs, social practices and taboos intended to last a lifetime.
Mr. Babenko reiterated earlier estimates that "the stores of oxygen on the submarine are sufficient for the crew members to move unaided and maintain physical functions for two more days".
I throw into the conversation my own opinion, which is that to shrink from referring to basic physical functions is to be truly infantile; to make good jokes about them, as about anything else, is evidence of maturity.
He and other experts consider self-neglect a geriatric syndrome like frailty, delirium or falls associated with the deterioration of multiple physical functions as people age.
