Meaning & use
Cathect
Last updated
To invest emotional energy or significance in a person, object, or idea, as in psychoanalytic theory.
See it in a sentence
The therapist explained how children cathect strongly onto a favorite toy.
He seemed to cathect his entire sense of self onto his career.
A note on using this word
Derived from the Greek 'kathexis,' the term was popularized by translations of Freud's work to describe the concentration of psychic energy on an object.
Words with a similar meaning
investattach
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Words with an opposite meaning
decathectdetach
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