View source for Cathexis

{{short description|Psychoanalytic concept of allocation of emotional energy}}
{{About|the psychological term}}
{{Distinguish|Catharsis}}
{{Psychoanalysis |Concepts}}

In [[psychoanalysis]], '''cathexis''' (or '''emotional investment''') is defined as the process of allocation of [[mental energy|mental or emotional energy]] to a person, object, or idea.<ref name=LP>{{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 }}</ref><ref>Hall, Calvin S. ''A Primer of Freudian Psychology''. New York: Mentor, 1954.</ref>

==Origin of term==
The [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] term ''cathexis'' (κάθεξις) was chosen by [[James Strachey]] to render the [[German language|German]] term ''Besetzung'' in his translation of [[Sigmund Freud]]'s complete works. Freud himself used the word "interest" in English in an early letter to [[Ernest Jones]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Ernest |author-link=Ernest Jones |title=Sigmund Freud, Life and Work |publisher=[[Hogarth Press|The 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]] |location=[[Abingdon-on-Thames]] |isbn=978-1-31767042-1 }}</ref><ref name= Gay465n>{{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}}</ref>

[[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 [[Electric charge|electricity]])",<ref name= Gay465n/> 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]], pointing out for example how dream thoughts were charged with different amounts of [[Affect (psychology)|affect]].<ref name="PFL2">{{Cite book |title=New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis |last=Freud |first=Sigmund |date=1973 |publisher=[[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}}</ref> A cathexis or allocation of emotional charge might be positive or negative, leading some of his followers to speak of a cathexis of [[mortido]] as well.<ref name="Berne1976">Eric Berne, '' A Layman's Guide to Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis'' (1976) p. 54 and p. 70</ref> Freud called a group of cathected ideas a [[Complex (psychology)|complex]].<ref>Sigmund Freud, ''Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis'' (1995) p. 44</ref>

Freud frequently described the functioning of psychosexual energies in quasi-physical terms,<ref>{{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]] |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}}</ref>{{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 (psychology)|regression]] and the "re-cathecting" of former positions or [[fixation (psychology)|fixation]]s,{{r|PFL2|p=123–124}} or the [[autoeroticism|autoerotic]] enjoyment (in phantasy) of former sexual objects: "object-cathexes".

Freud used the term "[[anticathexis|anti-cathexis]]" or counter-charge<ref>Felluga, Dino. "Terms Used by Psychoanalysis." Introductory Guide to Critical Theory. Purdue U. 31 August 2009. ([http://www.purdue.edu/guidetotheory/psychoanalysis/psychterms.html online])</ref> to describe how the [[Ego, super-ego, and id|ego]] blocks such regressive efforts to discharge one's cathexis: that is, when the ego wishes to [[psychological repression|repress]] such [[Interpersonal attraction|desires]]. Like a steam engine, the libido's cathexis then builds up until it finds alternative outlets, which can lead to [[sublimation (psychology)|sublimation]], [[reaction formation]], or the construction of (sometimes disabling) symptoms.{{r|PFL2|p=123}}

[[M. Scott Peck#Love|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]].<ref>[[Neville Symington]], ''Narcissism: A New Theory'' (2003) p. x–xi</ref>

==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.<ref>Sigmund Freud, ''On Psychopathology'' (PFL 10) p. 203</ref>

==Art==
[[Eric Berne]] raised the possibility that [[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.<ref name=LP/>

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".<ref name=LP/>

==See also==
{{Columns-list|colwidth=15em|
* [[Acathexis]]
* [[Anal fixation]]
* [[Body cathexis]]
* [[Condensation (psychology)]]
* [[Decathexis]]
* [[Oral stage]]
* [[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]]
* [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]]

[[Category:Freudian psychology]]
[[Category:Psychoanalytic terminology]]