Construct · 1 fields · 2 citations

cathexis: a standalone construct

One name. One construct. A landmark on the map.

● anchor · one construct, one field Nearest construct by meaning·not indexed
cathexis1 CONSTRUCTCathexisSTRACHEY FOR FREUD

A single standalone construct; nearby constructs are located against it in the Collider. Tap a field for its definition, unit, and measures.

Psychoanalysis

Psychic energy invested in an object or idea

In psychoanalysis, cathexis is the investment of psychic or libidinal energy in a mental representation (an object, person, idea, or part of the body), so that it becomes charged with significance and motivational force. The word is James Strachey's Greek-derived English rendering of Freud's everyday German term Besetzung ("occupation" or "investment"), central to Freud's economic model of the mind and detailed in Laplanche and Pontalis's The Language of Psycho-Analysis. The referent is a quantity of bound mental energy whose distribution and withdrawal Freud used to explain attention, attachment, mourning, and symptom formation.[1][2]

Unit
The quantity of psychic energy bound to a given representation
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Not directly measured; a theoretical quantity inferred from the intensity and persistence of an investment

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Nearby constructs

attachment2 fields · 6 citationsjingle · one word, two constructsattention5 fields · 10 citationsjingle · one name, five constructsbody2 fields · 3 citationsjingle · one word, two constructs

References

  1. Laplanche, J., & Pontalis, J.-B. (1973). The language of psycho-analysis (D. Nicholson-Smith, Trans.). W. W. Norton. (Original work published 1967) ISBN 9780393011050
  2. Freud, S. (1989). The ego and the id (J. Strachey, Trans.). W. W. Norton. (Original work published 1923) ISBN 9780393001426

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