Decathexis
{{Short description|Psychoanalytic concept}}
In psychoanalysis, decathexis is the withdrawal of cathexis from an idea or instinctual object.[http://www.enotes.com/decathexis-reference/decathexis Paul Denis, 'Decathexis']
Decathexis is the process of dis-investment of mental or emotional energy in a person, object, or idea.Hall, Calvin S. A Primer of Freudian Psychology. New York: Mentor, 1954.
Narcissism
In narcissistic neurosis, cathexis is withdrawn from external instinctual objects (or rather their unconscious representations)J-M Quinodoz, Reading Freud (2005) p. 145 and turned on the ego – a process Freud highlighted in the Schreber case, and linked to the subject's ensuing megalomania.Sigmund Freud, Case Histories II (PFL 9) p. 208-11
A similar decathexis of energy has been linked to the emergence of symptoms of hypochondriasis,Otto Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (1946) p. 262 as well as of melancholia.Sigmund Freud, On Metapsychology (PFL 11) p. 266-7
André Green saw decathexis as the product of the death drive, blanking out the possibility of thinking by a process of what he called de-objectilizing.J-M Quinodoz, Reading Freud (2005) p. 134
Grief
Decathexis of the lost person in grief was seen as a regular part of the mourning process by Freud, although later analysts have argued that such decathexis was rather the result of inhibited or partial mourning, not of successful mourning.Lora H. Tessman, The Analyst's Analyst Within (2003) p. 236-7
See also
References
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External links
- {{Cite journal|pmid=6544753|year=1984|last1=Furman|first1=R. A|title=Intermittent decathexis--a type of parental dysfunction|journal=The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis|volume=65 ( Pt 4)|pages=423–33|last2=Furman|first2=E}}