# Cathexis > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Cathexis > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Cathexis.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathexis > Source revision: 1327638126 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|Psychoanalytic concept of allocation of emotional energy}} {{About|the psychological term}} {{Distinguish|Catharsis}} {{Psychoanalysis |Concepts}} In [psychoanalysis](/source/psychoanalysis), '''cathexis''' (or '''emotional investment''') is defined as the process of allocation of [mental or emotional energy](/source/mental_energy) to a person, object, or idea.{{Cite book |first1=Jean |last1=Laplanche |first2=Jean-Bertrand |last2=Pontalis |author-link1=Jean Laplanche |author-link2=Jean-Bertrand Pontalis |chapter=Cathexis (pp. 62–5) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PsvZpv0ZRw0C&dq=%22+Cathexis+%3D+D.i+Besetzung%22&pg=PA62 |title=The Language of Psycho-Analysis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PsvZpv0ZRw0C |publisher=Karnac Books |location=London |year=1988 |edition=Reprint, revised |orig-date=1973 |isbn=978-1-781-81026-2 }}Hall, Calvin S. ''A Primer of Freudian Psychology''. New York: Mentor, 1954. ==Origin of term== The [Greek](/source/Ancient_Greek) term ''cathexis'' (κάθεξις) was chosen by [James Strachey](/source/James_Strachey) to render the [German](/source/German_language) term ''Besetzung'' in his translation of [Sigmund Freud](/source/Sigmund_Freud)'s complete works. Freud himself used the word "interest" in English in an early letter to [Ernest Jones](/source/Ernest_Jones).{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Ernest |author-link=Ernest Jones |title=Sigmund Freud, Life and Work |publisher=[The Hogarth Press](/source/Hogarth_Press) |location=London |year=1958 |volume=2 |pages=69f}} Quoted in: {{Cite book |editor-last=Nagera |editor-first=Humberto |chapter=Cathexis (pp. 77–96) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9xmvAwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Cathexis+I.+Definition%22+Besetzung+%223+Jones,+E.,+Sigmund+Freud,+Life+and+Work,+The+Hogarth+Press,+London,+1958,+Vol.+2,p.69f.%22&pg=PA77 |title=Basic Psychoanalytic Concepts on Metapsychology, Conflicts, Anxiety and Other Subjects |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9xmvAwAAQBAJ |year=2014 |orig-date=1970 |publisher=[Routledge](/source/Routledge) |location=[Abingdon-on-Thames](/source/Abingdon-on-Thames) |isbn=978-1-31767042-1 }}{{Cite book|last=Gay|first=Peter|title=Freud: A Life for Our Time|year=1989|page=465n|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=9780393072341 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mZ5eX44E9lYC&dq=%22peter+Gay%22%2C+Freud++%22besetzung%22+cathexis&pg=PA465}} [Peter Gay](/source/Peter_Gay) objected that Strachey's use of cathexis was an unnecessarily esoteric replacement for Freud's use of ''Besetzung'' – "a word from common German speech rich in suggestive meanings, among them 'occupation' (by troops) and 'charge' (of [electricity](/source/Electric_charge))", though Gay is mistaken regarding his latter example.{{Efn|Freud uses the expressions "Besetzung mit Energie" and "mit Energie besetzen" (with the noun "Besetzung" and the verb "besetzen") to refer to "allocation of energy" and "to allocate energy".|group=upper-alpha}} ==Usage== Freud defined cathexis as an allocation of [libido](/source/libido), pointing out for example how dream thoughts were charged with different amounts of [affect](/source/Affect_(psychology)).{{Cite book |title=New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis |last=Freud |first=Sigmund |date=1973 |publisher=[Penguin Books](/source/Penguin_Books) |pages=[https://archive.org/details/trent_0116403214129/page/49/mode/1up 49] |author-link=Sigmund Freud |url=https://archive.org/details/trent_0116403214129 |editor-last=Strachey |editor-first=James |editor-link=James Strachey |series=The Pelican Freud Library |volume=2 |translator-last=Strachey |translator-first=James |oclc=1151453528 |access-date=2025-06-19 |editor-last2=Richards |editor-first2=Angela |url-access=registration}} A cathexis or allocation of emotional charge might be positive or negative, leading some of his followers to speak of a cathexis of [mortido](/source/mortido) as well.Eric Berne, '' A Layman's Guide to Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis'' (1976) p. 54 and p. 70 Freud called a group of cathected ideas a [complex](/source/Complex_(psychology)).Sigmund Freud, ''Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis'' (1995) p. 44 Freud frequently described the functioning of psychosexual energies in quasi-physical terms,{{Cite book |title=Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis |url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.273302/2015.273302.Introductory-Lectures_djvu.txt |last=Freud |first=Sigmund |date=1976 |publisher=[Penguin Books](/source/Penguin_Books) |pages=[https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.273302/2015.273302.Introductory-Lectures_djvu.txt#:~:text=resistance%20and%20repression%20337 337] |author-link=Sigmund Freud |editor-last=Strachey |editor-first=James |series=The Pelican Freud Library |volume=1 |translator-last=Strachey |translator-first=James |format=TXT |oclc=222864345 |access-date=2025-06-19 |editor-last2=Richards |editor-first2=Angela |editor-link=James Strachey}}{{qn|date=June 2013}} representing frustration of libidinal desires, for example, as a blockage of (cathected) energies which would eventually build up and require release in alternative ways. This release could occur, for example, by way of [regression](/source/Regression_(psychology)) and the "re-cathecting" of former positions or [fixation](/source/fixation_(psychology))s,{{r|PFL2|p=123–124}} or the [autoerotic](/source/autoeroticism) enjoyment (in phantasy) of former sexual objects: "object-cathexes". Freud used the term "[anti-cathexis](/source/anticathexis)" or counter-chargeFelluga, Dino. "Terms Used by Psychoanalysis." Introductory Guide to Critical Theory. Purdue U. 31 August 2009. ([http://www.purdue.edu/guidetotheory/psychoanalysis/psychterms.html online]) to describe how the [ego](/source/Ego%2C_super-ego%2C_and_id) blocks such regressive efforts to discharge one's cathexis: that is, when the ego wishes to [repress](/source/psychological_repression) such [desires](/source/Interpersonal_attraction). Like a steam engine, the libido's cathexis then builds up until it finds alternative outlets, which can lead to [sublimation](/source/sublimation_(psychology)), [reaction formation](/source/reaction_formation), or the construction of (sometimes disabling) symptoms.{{r|PFL2|p=123}} [M. Scott Peck](/source/M._Scott_Peck) distinguishes between love and cathexis, with cathexis being the initial in-love phase of a relationship, and love being the ongoing commitment of care. Cathexis, to Peck, is distinguished from love by its dynamic element. ==Object relations== Freud saw the early cathexis of objects with libidinal energy as a central aspect of human development.{{r|PFL2|p=118,151–8}} In describing the withdrawal of cathexes which accompanied the mourning process, Freud provided his major contribution to the foundation of [object relations theory](/source/object_relations_theory).[Neville Symington](/source/Neville_Symington), ''Narcissism: A New Theory'' (2003) p. x–xi ==Thinking== Freud saw thinking as an experimental process involving minimal amounts of cathexis, "in the same way as a general shifts small figures about on a map".{{r|PFL2|p=122}} In delusions, it was the hypercathexis (or over-charging) of ideas previously dismissed as odd or eccentric which he saw as causing the subsequent pathology.Sigmund Freud, ''On Psychopathology'' (PFL 10) p. 203 ==Art== [Eric Berne](/source/Eric_Berne) raised the possibility that [child art](/source/child_art) often represented the intensity of cathexis invested in an object, rather than its objective form.{{r|Berne1976|p=63}} ==Criticism== Critics charge that the term provides a potentially misleading neurophysiological analogy, which might be applicable to the cathexis of ideas but certainly not of objects. Further ambiguity in Freud's usage emerges in the contrast between cathexis as a measurable load of (undifferentiated) libido, and as a qualitatively distinct type of affect – as in a "cathexis of longing". ==See also== {{Columns-list|colwidth=15em| * [Acathexis](/source/Acathexis) * [Anal fixation](/source/Anal_fixation) * [Body cathexis](/source/Body_cathexis) * [Condensation (psychology)](/source/Condensation_(psychology)) * [Decathexis](/source/Decathexis) * [Oral stage](/source/Oral_stage) * [Psychological resistance](/source/Psychological_resistance) }} == Explanatory notes == {{Reflist|group=upper-alpha}} == References == {{Reflist|2}} == Further reading == * {{Cite journal |last1=Brull |first1=H. Frank |date=1975 |title=A Reconsideration of Some Translations of Sigmund Freud. |journal=Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=273–279 |doi=10.1037/h0086443 }} * {{Cite journal |last1=Hoffer |first1=Peter T. |date=October 2005 |title=Reflections on Cathexis |journal=The Psychoanalytic Quarterly |volume=74 |issue=4 |pages=1127–1135 |doi=10.1002/j.2167-4086.2005.tb00239.x |pmid=16355721 |s2cid=11739132 }} * {{Cite journal |last1=McIntosh |first1=Donald |date=August 1993 |title=Cathexes and Their Objects in The Thought of Sigmund Freud |journal=Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=679–709 |doi=10.1177/000306519304100303 |pmid=8354842 |s2cid=9588558 }} * {{Cite thesis |last1=Millen |first1=Brian |date=September 2023 |title=Hypo-Cathexis and Impotence in the Facilitating Environment of the Anthropocene: Towards Digital Humanities |url=https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/5591/ |type=M.A. |location=New York |publisher=The Graduate Center, City University of New York}} * {{Cite journal |last1=Ornston |first1=D |date=1982 |title=Strachey's Influence: A Preliminary Report |journal=The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis |volume=63 |issue=Pt 4 |pages=409–26 |pmid=7152805 }} * {{Cite journal |last1=Ornston |first1=Darius |date=1985 |title=The Invention of Cathexis and Strachey's Strategy |url=https://pep-web.org/search/document/IRP.012.0391A |journal=International Review of Psycho-Analysis |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=391–399 |id={{INIST|8827441}} }} * {{Cite journal |last1=Poe |first1=Andrew |date=October 2018 |title=Expressions of a Fascist Imaginary |journal=South Atlantic Quarterly |volume=117 |issue=4 |pages=815–832 |doi=10.1215/00382876-7165883 |s2cid=150169236 }} == External links == {{Wiktionary}} * [http://www.enotes.com/cathexis-reference/cathexis-187347 Cathexis] at [eNotes](/source/eNotes) * [http://psychology.about.com/od/sigmundfreud/a/cathexis.htm Cathexis and Anticathexis] ({{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304023203/http://psychology.about.com/od/sigmundfreud/a/cathexis.htm |date=2016-03-04 }}) at [Verywell Mind](/source/Verywell_Mind) Category:Freudian psychology Category:Psychoanalytic terminology --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Cathexis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathexis) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathexis?action=history)). 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