cathexis

1. 1.

   (psychoanalysis) the libidinal energy invested in some idea or person or object

   “Freud thought of cathexis as a psychic analog of an electrical charge”

   Synonymscharge

   Broaderlibidinal energy

   psychoanalysis

Other forms of cathexis

plural

cathexes

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about cathexis

What does cathexis mean?

cathexis means "(psychoanalysis) the libidinal energy invested in some idea or person or object".

How many syllables are in cathexis?

cathexis has 3 syllables: ca-thex-is. The stress falls on "ca".

What is another word for cathexis?

Close synonyms include charge. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is cathexis a common word?

cathexis is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.