A key concept from the economic point of view, "cathexis" refers to the process that attaches psychic energy, essentially libido, to an object, whether this is the representation of a person, body part, or psychic element. Implicit in Freud's early works, the idea of cathexis stems directly from the hypothesis of psychic energy. The term first appeared in 1895 in Studies on Hysteria, as well as in "Project for a Scientific Psychology" (1950c [1895]). It then recurs throughout Freud's works.

The term is used to designate various psychic impulses in energic terms. As a result, "cathexis" is also used to refer to organizational psychic impulses, the interplay of symptoms and regressions, and the workings of attention and pain. Freud used it to describe major and modulated quantitative phenomena in symptoms and psychic processes. The term also denotes the binding of psychic energy to interconnected representations in the...