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/> This, however, arises from a misunderstanding of the psychoanalytic definition of objects, which does not refer to physical objects that are seen in the environment, but to the internal images of these physical objects which are created by the psyche.{{Citation needed|date=April 2025}} 

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]]