anticathexis

n. in psychoanalytic theory, a process in which the ego withdraws psychic energy from certain unconscious wishes and ideas and uses it to strengthen other wishes and ideas capable of blocking the decathected material’s entrance into consciousness. The anticathected material may be similar to the original or opposite but related to it: For example, philanthropy may neutralize an unconscious wish to hoard. Also called countercathexis. See also cathexis. —anticathected adj.

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Psychology term of the day

November 17th 2024

pressure-threshold test

a sensory test in which pressure sensitivity is measured with a series of hairs of graded stiffness.