Literary notes about uptight (AI summary)
In literature, "uptight" is often used to convey a sense of rigidity, formality, or emotional constraint in a character or institution. It can paint a picture of someone who is not only physically well-ordered but also mentally tense and highly self-conscious, as when a character is noted to be both immaculately dressed and rigid in her demeanor [1]. At times, the term underscores the oppressive nature of societal or internal standards that restrict fulfillment and spontaneity [2], while in other instances it appears in dialogue to critique inflexibility or over-cautious attitudes, whether in personal interactions [3] or when critiquing bureaucratic or perfectionistic behavior [4, 5, 6]. Even in more nuanced portrayals, "uptight" can reflect a tension between the desire for order and the need for genuine, less constrained engagement with life [7, 8, 9, 10, 11].
- She is slender, immaculately dressed, and—as Dr. Feldman could see immediately—rigid and very uptight about herself.
— from When You Don't Know Where to TurnA Self-Diagnosing Guide to Counseling and Therapy by Steven J. Bartlett - You will probably feel more real, meaningful satisfaction with your life, since you are no longer imprisoned by uptight standards of judgment.
— from When You Don't Know Where to TurnA Self-Diagnosing Guide to Counseling and Therapy by Steven J. Bartlett - "God, you're uptight," she said as she shed her g-string on the isolated pristine coastline.
— from Terminal Compromise by Winn Schwartau - He would ask them to analyze these in TA terms and then would push mother and son to imagine more appropriate and less uptight ways of responding.
— from When You Don't Know Where to TurnA Self-Diagnosing Guide to Counseling and Therapy by Steven J. Bartlett - They are rigid, uptight, and inclined to be obsessive perfectionists.
— from When You Don't Know Where to TurnA Self-Diagnosing Guide to Counseling and Therapy by Steven J. Bartlett - Their behavior is frequently uptight, intense, judgmental, and intolerant or shy, self-effacing, and inclined to self-condemnation.
— from When You Don't Know Where to TurnA Self-Diagnosing Guide to Counseling and Therapy by Steven J. Bartlett - She wanted to ask the Reclasaur what he had done to make her so "uptight" but Gabriele changed her mind.
— from Tokyo to Tijuana: Gabriele Departing America by Steven David Justin Sills - When Lotus became too uptight, too bureaucratic, too far from the true sources of his own satisfaction, Kapor walked.
— from The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier by Bruce Sterling - I thought he was just nervous and would get used to it, but he got more and more uptight.
— from O+F by John Moncure Wetterau - But where will not prejudice lead men, when even the uptight Cleanthes is capable of slander?
— from Ancient and Modern Celebrated Freethinkers Reprinted From an English Work, Entitled "Half-Hours With The Freethinkers." by Collins, Anthony, pseud. - The master to [98] whom he was assigned was as good a man as the father could find: uptight, Godfearing, and especially considerate of his servants.
— from Bunyan by James Anthony Froude
