1.
[syn: cathexis, charge]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Cathexis \Cath*ex"is\, n. [Gr. ka`qexis, keeping.]
1. (Psychiatry) the process of investing mental, emotional,
or libidinal energy or significance in an object, person,
or idea.
[PJC]
2. (Psychiatry) the emotional or libidinal energy invested in
an object, person, or idea.
[PJC]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
cathexis
n 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" [syn: cathexis,
charge]