Cathexis
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In psychoanalysis, cathexis (or emotional investment) is defined as the process of allocation of mental or emotional energy to a person, object, or idea.[1][2]
Origin of term
[edit]The Greek term cathexis (κάθεξις) was chosen by James Strachey to render the 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.[3][4]
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 electricity)",[4] though Gay is mistaken regarding his latter example.[A]
Usage
[edit]Freud defined cathexis as an allocation of libido, pointing out for example how dream thoughts were charged with different amounts of affect.[5] 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.[6] Freud called a group of cathected ideas a complex.[7]
Freud frequently described the functioning of psychosexual energies in quasi-physical terms,[8][need quotation to verify] 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 and the "re-cathecting" of former positions or fixations,[9] or the autoerotic enjoyment (in phantasy) of former sexual objects: "object-cathexes".
Freud used the term "anti-cathexis" or counter-charge[10] to describe how the ego blocks such regressive efforts to discharge one's cathexis: that is, when the ego wishes to repress such desires. Like a steam engine, the libido's cathexis then builds up until it finds alternative outlets, which can lead to sublimation, reaction formation, or the construction of (sometimes disabling) symptoms.[11]
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
[edit]Freud saw the early cathexis of objects with libidinal energy as a central aspect of human development.[12] In describing the withdrawal of cathexes which accompanied the mourning process, Freud provided his major contribution to the foundation of object relations theory.[13]
Thinking
[edit]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".[14]
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.[15]
Art
[edit]Eric Berne raised the possibility that child art often represented the intensity of cathexis invested in an object, rather than its objective form.[16]
Criticism
[edit]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.[1] 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.
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".[1]
See also
[edit]Explanatory notes
[edit]- ^ 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".
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Laplanche, Jean; Pontalis, Jean-Bertrand (1988) [1973]. "Cathexis (pp. 62–5)". The Language of Psycho-Analysis (Reprint, revised ed.). London: Karnac Books. ISBN 978-1-781-81026-2.
- ^ Hall, Calvin S. A Primer of Freudian Psychology. New York: Mentor, 1954.
- ^ Jones, Ernest (1958). Sigmund Freud, Life and Work. Vol. 2. London: The Hogarth Press. pp. 69f. Quoted in: Nagera, Humberto, ed. (2014) [1970]. "Cathexis (pp. 77–96)". Basic Psychoanalytic Concepts on Metapsychology, Conflicts, Anxiety and Other Subjects. Abingdon-on-Thames: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-31767042-1.
- ^ a b Gay, Peter (1989). Freud: A Life for Our Time. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 465n. ISBN 9780393072341.
- ^ Sigmund Freud, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (PFL 2) p. 49
- ^ Eric Berne, A Layman's Guide to Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis (1976) p. 54 and p. 70
- ^ Sigmund Freud, Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (1995) p. 44
- ^ Sigmund Freud, Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (PFL 1) p. 337
- ^ Freud, New, pp. 123–4
- ^ Felluga, Dino. "Terms Used by Psychoanalysis." Introductory Guide to Critical Theory. Purdue U. 31 August 2009. (online)
- ^ Freud, New p. 123
- ^ Freud, New p. 118 and pp. 151–8
- ^ Neville Symington, Narcissism: A New Theory (2003) p. x–xi
- ^ Freud, New p. 122
- ^ Sigmund Freud, On Psychopathology (PFL 10) p. 203
- ^ Berne, p. 63
Further reading
[edit]- Brull, H. Frank (1975). "A Reconsideration of Some Translations of Sigmund Freud". Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice. 12 (3): 273–279. doi:10.1037/h0086443.
- Hoffer, Peter T. (October 2005). "Reflections on Cathexis". The Psychoanalytic Quarterly. 74 (4): 1127–1135. doi:10.1002/j.2167-4086.2005.tb00239.x. PMID 16355721. S2CID 11739132.
- McIntosh, Donald (August 1993). "Cathexes and Their Objects in The Thought of Sigmund Freud". Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. 41 (3): 679–709. doi:10.1177/000306519304100303. PMID 8354842. S2CID 9588558.
- Millen, Brian (September 2023). Hypo-Cathexis and Impotence in the Facilitating Environment of the Anthropocene: Towards Digital Humanities (M.A.). New York: The Graduate Center, City University of New York.
- Ornston, D (1982). "Strachey's Influence: A Preliminary Report". The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis. 63 (Pt 4): 409–26. PMID 7152805.
- Ornston, Darius (1985). "The Invention of Cathexis and Strachey's Strategy". International Review of Psycho-Analysis. 12 (4): 391–399. INIST 8827441.
- Poe, Andrew (October 2018). "Expressions of a Fascist Imaginary". South Atlantic Quarterly. 117 (4): 815–832. doi:10.1215/00382876-7165883. S2CID 150169236.
External links
[edit]
- Cathexis at eNotes
- Cathexis and Anticathexis (Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine) at Verywell Mind