| n. | 1. | (Psychiatry) the process of investing mental, emotional, or libidinal energy or significance in an object, person, or idea. |
| 2. | (Psychiatry) the emotional or libidinal energy invested in an object, person, or idea. |
| Noun | 1. | cathexis - (psychoanalysis) the libidinal energy invested in some idea or person or object; "Freud thought of cathexis as a psychic analog of an electrical charge" Synonyms: charge |