verb
- investing emotional energy or desire in a person, object, or idea; directing one's feelings or psychological energy toward something
Usage: psychology; psychoanalysis; formal
Examples
- The therapist explained that the patient was cathecting onto the therapist as a parental figure.
- By cathecting emotional energy into creative pursuits, she found a healthy outlet for her feelings.
- He struggled with cathecting to new relationships after his loss.
- The child was cathecting all her hopes onto winning the competition.
- Cathecting too much of one's identity into a single role can be psychologically risky.