Attachment, conscious or unconscious, of emotional feeling and significance to an idea, an object, or, most commonly, a person. In transference, patients withdraw their cathexis (or investment) from past figures and reinvest it in the clinician as a new figure.
An investment or an object, idea, or action that has special significance or effect for a person.
Powerful concentration of emotion on a particular person, place, or thing, or on one’s self. When such a concentration becomes painful or troubling, displacement may occur, in which the emotion becomes focused on another object instead.
Emotional attachment to an idea, object, or person.
The emotional or mental energy used in concentrating on an object or idea.