cathexis

is the discharging or concentration of mental or emotional energy (libido) in a person, object, or idea.

the discharging or concentration of mental or emotional energy (libido) in a person, object, or idea. Cathexis thus arises to various degrees any time an object grabs our attention (or our attention is directed at something as an object). Energies are given over to objects, just as say, security can get into the very fibers of a child's favorite blankey such that the blankey does not just represent the idea of security, but rather embodies it. Thus, the loss of the blanky, say, in a fire, is experienced as the actual loss of security (the embodied concept) itself. Anti-chathexis, or 'counter-charge' thus refers to the blockage of such energy. A group of cathected responses, Freud calls a 'complex'.

is the investment of libido in a particular object (such as freud's own cathexis of interest around sexuality).

Cathexis: 'the investment of libido in objects. An example would be Freud's enormous cathexis of interest around sexuality. Cathexes correspond to ideas, whereas affects are discharge products.

cathexis, n.All

cathexis