The results of this observational study revealed that bother was used to refer to negative emotional feelings, pain in a physical sense, and preoccupation in one's own thoughts [ 8].
Despite Hemingway's preoccupation with physical contests, his heroes are almost always defeated physically, nervously, practically: their stories are moral ones.
His preoccupation with physical sex has slowed, he says, partly because of age.
Hypochondriasis is a preoccupation with physical signs or symptoms that the person unrealistically interprets as abnormal, leading to the fear or belief that he is seriously ill.
The doctors appropriated Oscar Wilde's novel to describe patients exhibiting an obsessive preoccupation with physical attractiveness and eternal youth, and a narcissistic fixation with "lifestyle drugs" (medications for hair restoration, weight loss and the like) as well as cosmetic procedures and products.
In his fascinating feature on Brentford/FC Midtjylland's maverick chairman, Sean Ingle highlights the increasing statistical preoccupation with physical areas of a football pitch in which goals are created (and conversely conceded) – identifying a "danger zone" from which three-quarters of goals in the English Premier League are scored.
Our cultural preoccupation with physical appearance isn't simply a narcissistic tendency, but may, in part, reflect our striving for social standing in society.
In fact, if we had lived just over a hundred years ago, a well-cushioned body would be the ideal to which we would be encouraged to aspire, though probably fewer of us would have developed the kind of intense preoccupation with physical perfection that women experience today because back then people were not bombarded day-in-and-day-out with mass media images of the ideal.
In contrast, given the preoccupation with physical illness usually demonstrated by people with non-psychotic mental illness [ 34], our participants in this sub-group viewed their physical health as one of their greatest priorities.
These findings suggest that a dysfunctional preoccupation with physical health and disease-related concerns (termed 'somatisation' for ease of reading) may be particularly salient in the interpretation of global ratings of health status.
