cathect
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Back-formation from cathexis and cathectic.
Pronunciation[edit]
Verb[edit]
cathect (third-person singular simple present cathects, present participle cathecting, simple past and past participle cathected)
- (transitive, psychology) To focus one's emotional energies on someone or something.
- 2013, Carroll E. Izard, Human Emotions, page 193:
- Apparently it is possible for an individual to cathect any person, object, idea, or image. Of considerable importance to a possible analogy between cathexis and the emotion of interest, is Freud's notion that an individual can cathect thought or thinking as well as attention and perception.