Kathexis

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The allocation of psychological energy towards a particular idea, object, or individual signifies an emotional investment that enhances the connection felt towards it
2. This phenomenon involves directing one's psychic energy to a specific person, concept, or object, resulting in an intensified emotional bond
3. The process of channeling mental energy into an object, idea, or person, creating a strong emotional attachment

Etymology: Freud wrote in German of "Besetzung," an everyday word meaning "occupation," to describe how mental energy settles on a person or idea. When James Strachey translated his works into English, he reached back to Greek for a more neutral term and chose "kathexis," from "kathechein," meaning "to hold back" or "to possess." That verb is built from "kata," roughly "down" or "fully," and "echein," "to have" or "to hold." English-language psychology now usually spells it "cathexis." The metaphor is physical. Energy is pictured as being gripped and held on an object, as a hand holds on to something. Strachey's choice was a deliberate translator's coinage, so the psychological sense is not a meaning the Greek term carried in antiquity.