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The concentration of libido or emotional energy on a single object or idea.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
Topics: human-sciences, medicine, psychoanalysis, psychology, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
(psychoanalysis) the libidinal energy invested in some idea or person or object
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- Freud thought of cathexis as a psychic analog of an electrical charge
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: charge
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: libidinal energy
From Ancient Greek κάθεξις (káthexis, “holding, retention”). The term entered the English language as a translation for the common everyday German word Besetzung, which in the context of psychoanalysis means "occupation" in the sense of a position or something being occupied or filled, and not a military occupation of a place or the filling of job positions (although it can also mean either of these in other contexts). (In English translations, a Greek word was used to be more scientific.)
Across languages
Translations
7 source translations are retained for this English entry.
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Catalan:
catexi
— the concentration of libido or emotional energy on a single object or idea
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German:
Objektbesetzung
— the concentration of libido or emotional energy on a single object or idea
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Korean:
주의 집중
(juui jipjung)
— the concentration of libido or emotional energy on a single object or idea
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Polish:
kateksja
— the concentration of libido or emotional energy on a single object or idea
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Portuguese:
catexia
— the concentration of libido or emotional energy on a single object or idea
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Portuguese:
catexe
— the concentration of libido or emotional energy on a single object or idea
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Turkish:
kateksis
— the concentration of libido or emotional energy on a single object or idea