Definition of Cathexis

1. Noun. (psychoanalysis) the libidinal energy invested in some idea or person or object. "Freud thought of cathexis as a psychic analog of an electrical charge"

Exact synonyms: Charge
Category relationships: Analysis, Depth Psychology, Psychoanalysis
Generic synonyms: Libidinal Energy
Derivative terms: Cathectic

Definition of Cathexis

1. Noun. (psychoanalysis) the concentration of libido or emotional energy on a single object or idea ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Cathexis

1. the concentration of psychic energy on a person or idea [n -THEXES]

Medical Definition of Cathexis

1. Attachment, conscious or unconscious, of emotional feeling and significance to an idea, object or most commonly a person. (12 Dec 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Cathexis

catheterised
catheterises
catheterising
catheterization
catheterizations
catheterize
catheterized
catheterizes
catheterizing
catheterostat
catheters
catheti
cathetometer
cathetus
cathexes
cathexis (current term)
cathine
cathinone
cathisma
cathismas
cathodal
cathodal closure contraction
cathodal closure tetanus
cathodal duration tetanus
cathodal opening clonus
cathodal opening contraction
cathodal opening tetanus
cathodally
cathode
cathode-ray oscilloscope

Literary usage of Cathexis

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World by Julian Dibbell (1998)
"I could no longer successfully pretend, either to myself or Jessica, that these were necessary to the process of untangling whatever knot of mutual cathexis ..."

2. The Urban Condition: space, community, and self in the contemporary metropolis by Ghent Urban Studies Team (1999)
"... for libidinal cathexis. As Rudi Laermans writes: “Only where others are truly Other, because they are at once physically near and psychically far, ..."

3. Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing by Larry Chang (2006)
"Possessions can absorb an emotional cathexis, but unlike personal relationships they feed nothing back. ~ Philip Slater, 1927- ~ The Pursuit of Loneliness, ..."

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