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Decathexis
In psychoanalysis, decathexis is the withdrawal of cathexis from an idea or instinctual object. Decathexis is the process of dis-investment of mental or emotional energy in a person, object, or idea. Narcissism In narcissistic neurosis, cathexis is withdrawn from external instinctual objects (or rather their unconscious representations) and turned on the ego – a process Freud highlighted in the Schreber case, and linked to the subject's ensuing megalomania. A similar decathexis of energy has been linked to the emergence of symptoms of hypochondriasis, as well as of melancholia. André Green saw decathexis as the product of the death drive In classical Freudian psychoanalytic theory, the death drive (german: Todestrieb) is the drive toward death and destruction, often expressed through behaviors such as aggression, repetition compulsion, and self-destructiveness.Eric Berne, ''Wha ..., blanking out the possibility of thinking by a process of what he called de-objectiliz ...
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Psychoanalysis
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might be considered an unfortunately abbreviated description, Freud said that anyone who recognizes transference and resistance is a psychoanalyst, even if he comes to conclusions other than his own.… I prefer to think of the analytic situation more broadly, as one in which someone seeking help tries to speak as freely as he can to someone who listens as carefully as he can with the aim of articulating what is going on between them and why. David Rapaport (1967a) once defined the analytic situation as carrying the method of interpersonal relationship to its last consequences." Gill, Merton M. 1999.Psychoanalysis, Part 1: Proposals for the Future" ''The Challenge for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy: Solutions for the Future''. New York: Americ ...
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Cathexis
In psychoanalysis, cathexis (or emotional investment) is defined as the process of allocation of mental or emotional energy to a person, object, or idea. Origin of term The Greek term ''cathexis'' (κάθεξις) was chosen by James Strachey to render the German term ''Besetzung'' in his translation of Sigmund Freud's complete works. Freud himself used the word "interest" in English in an early letter to Ernest Jones. Peter Gay objected that Strachey's use of cathexis was an unnecessarily esoteric replacement for Freud's use of ''Besetzung'' – "a word from common German speech rich in suggestive meanings, among them 'occupation' (by troops) and 'charge' (of electricity)", of which the latter is an incorrect claim by Gay (as can be confirmed by looking in any German dictionary). Apparently Gay was confused by the common use of the English noun and verb "charge" to refer to both "allocation/allocating" and the "energy" allocated in cathexis, e.g. "emotional charge", "counter ...
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Instinct
Instinct is the inherent inclination of a living organism towards a particular complex behaviour, containing both innate (inborn) and learned elements. The simplest example of an instinctive behaviour is a fixed action pattern (FAP), in which a very short to medium length sequence of actions, without variation, are carried out in response to a corresponding clearly defined stimulus. Any behaviour is instinctive if it is performed without being based upon prior experience (that is, in the absence of learning), and is therefore an expression of innate biological factors. Sea turtles, newly hatched on a beach, will instinctively move toward the ocean. A marsupial climbs into its mother's pouch upon being born. Other examples include animal fighting, animal courtship behaviour, internal escape functions, and the building of nests. Though an instinct is defined by its invariant innate characteristics, details of its performance can be changed by experience; for example, a dog can imp ...
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Narcissistic Neurosis
Narcissistic neurosis is a term introduced by Sigmund Freud to distinguish the class of neuroses characterised by their lack of object relations and their fixation upon the early stage of libidinal narcissism. The term is less current in contemporary psychoanalysis, but still a focus for analytic controversy. Freud considered such neurosis as impervious to psychoanalytic treatment, as opposed to the transference neurosis where an emotional connection to the analyst was by contrast possible. Freud's changing ideas Freud originally applied the term "narcissistic neurosis" to a range of disorders, including perversion, depression, and psychosis. In the 1920s, however, he came to single out "illnesses which are based on a conflict between the ego and the super-ego... we would set aside the name of 'narcissistic psycho-neuroses' for disorders of that kind"—melancholia being the outstanding example. About the same time, in the wake of the work of Karl Abraham, he began to modify to a d ...
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Id, Ego And Super-ego
The id, ego, and super-ego are a set of three concepts in psychoanalytic theory describing distinct, interacting agents in the psychic apparatus (defined in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche). The three agents are theoretical constructs that describe the activities and interactions of the mental life of a person. In the ego psychology model of the psyche, the id is the set of uncoordinated instinctual desires; the super-ego plays the critical and moralizing role; and the ego is the organized, realistic agent that mediates between the instinctual desires of the id and the critical super-ego; Freud explained that: The functional importance of the ego is manifested in the fact that, normally, control over the approaches to motility devolves upon it. Thus, in its relation to the id, he egois like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse; with this difference, that the rider tries to do so with his own strength, while the ego uses b ...
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Daniel Paul Schreber
Daniel Paul Schreber (; 25 July 1842 – 14 April 1911) was a German judge who was famous for his personal account of his own experience with schizophrenia. Schreber experienced three distinct periods of acute mental illness. The first of these, in 1884-1885 was what was then diagnosed as dementia praecox (later known as paranoid schizophrenia or schizophrenia, paranoid type). He described his second psychiatric disease, mental illness, from 1893 to 1902, making also a brief reference to the first disorder from 1884 to 1885, in his book ''Memoirs of My Nervous Illness'' (german: Denkwürdigkeiten eines Nervenkranken). The ''Memoirs'' became an influential book in the history of psychiatry and psychoanalysis because of its interpretation by Sigmund Freud. There is no personal account of his third disorder, in 1907–1911, but some details about it can be found in the Hospital Chart (in the Appendix to Lothane's book). During his second illness he was treated by Prof. Paul Flech ...
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Megalomania
Megalomania is an obsession with power and wealth, and a passion for grand schemes. Megalomania or megalomaniac may also refer to: Psychology * Narcissistic personality disorder * Grandiose delusions * Omnipotence (psychoanalysis), a stage of child development Albums * ''Megalomania'' (Aqua album), 2011 * '' Mania velichia'' or ''Megalomania'', a 1985 album by Aria * ''Megalomania'' (Enslavement of Beauty album), 2001 * ''Megalomania'', a 2014 album by Kissin' Dynamite Songs * "Megalomaniac" (Incubus song), 2004 * "Megalomaniac" (KMFDM song), 1997 * "Megalomania" (Muse song), a 2001 song by Muse from ''Origin of Symmetry'' * "Megalomania", a 1975 song by Black Sabbath from ''Sabotage'' * "Megalomania", a 1983 song by the Blood from '' False Gestures for a Devious Public'' * "Megalomania", a 1992 song by Pele from ''Fireworks'' * "Megalomania", a 1991 song by Therion from '' Of Darkness...'' Other * ''Mega-Lo-Mania'', a 1991 real-time strategy game by Sensible Soft ...
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Hypochondriasis
Hypochondriasis or hypochondria is a condition in which a person is excessively and unduly worried about having a serious illness. An old concept, the meaning of hypochondria has repeatedly changed. It has been claimed that this debilitating condition results from an inaccurate perception of the condition of body or mind despite the absence of an actual medical diagnosis. An individual with hypochondriasis is known as a hypochondriac. Hypochondriacs become unduly alarmed about any physical or psychological symptoms they detect, no matter how minor the symptom may be, and are convinced that they have, or are about to be diagnosed with, a serious illness. Often, hypochondria persists even after a physician has evaluated a person and reassured them that their concerns about symptoms do not have an underlying medical basis or, if there is a medical illness, their concerns are far in excess of what is appropriate for the level of disease. It is also referred to hypochondriaism which is ...
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Melancholia
Melancholia or melancholy (from el, µέλαινα χολή ',Burton, Bk. I, p. 147 meaning black bile) is a concept found throughout ancient, medieval and premodern medicine in Europe that describes a condition characterized by markedly depressed mood, bodily complaints, and sometimes hallucinations and delusions. Melancholy was regarded as one of the four temperaments matching the four humours. Until the 18th century, doctors and other scholars classified melancholic conditions as such by their perceived common causean excess of a notional fluid known as "black bile", which was commonly linked to the spleen. Between the late 18th and late 19th centuries, ''melancholia'' was a common medical diagnosis, and modern concepts of depression as a mood disorder eventually arose from this historical context. Related terms used in historical medicine include lugubriousness (from Latin '' lugere'': "to mourn"), moroseness (from Latin '' morosus'': "self-will or fastidious habit"), ...
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André Green (psychoanalyst)
André Green (; 12 March 1927 – 22 January 2012) was a French psychoanalyst. Life and career André Green was born in Cairo, Egypt, to non observant Jewish parents. He studied medicine (specialising in psychiatry) at Paris Medical School and worked at several hospitals. Then, in 1965, after having finished his training as a psychoanalyst, he became a member of the Paris Psychoanalytic Society (SPP), of which he was the president from 1986 to 1989. From 1975 to 1977 he was a vice president of the International Psychoanalytical Association and from 1979 to 1980 a professor at University College London. He died, aged 84, in Paris. André Green was the author of numerous papers and books on the theory and practice of psychoanalysis and the psychoanalytic criticism of culture and literature, many of which have also appeared in English translations. Intellectual development Encounter with Lacan In the early 1960s, Green could be found attending Lacan's seminar, without aba ...
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Death Drive
In classical Freudian psychoanalytic theory, the death drive (german: Todestrieb) is the drive toward death and destruction, often expressed through behaviors such as aggression, repetition compulsion, and self-destructiveness.Eric Berne, ''What Do You say After You Say Hello?'' (London, 1975) pp. 399–400. It was originally proposed by Sabina Spielrein in her paper "Destruction as the Cause of Coming Into Being" (''Die Destruktion als Ursache des Werdens'') in 1912, which was then taken up by Sigmund Freud in 1920 in ''Beyond the Pleasure Principle.'' This concept has been translated as "opposition between the ego or death instincts and the sexual or life instincts". In ''Pleasure Principle'', Freud used the plural "death drives" (''Todestriebe'') much more frequently than the singular. The death drive opposes Eros, the tendency toward survival, propagation, sex, and other creative, life-producing drives. The death drive is sometimes referred to as "Thanatos" in post-Freudian ...
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Acathexis
Acathexis is a psychoanalytic term for a lack of emotional response to significant memories or actual interactions, where such a response would normally be expected. The term also refers more broadly to a general absence of normal or expected feelings. Acathexis has been linked to anxiety, bipolar disorder and dementia, while the phenomenon also appears in posttraumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on ....D. Goleman, ''Emotional Intelligence'' (1996) p. 206 See also References {{Reflist, 2} Further reading * P. Sifeos, 'Affect. Emotional Conflicts, and Deficits' ''Psychotherapy-and-Psychosomatics'' 56 (1991) 116-22 Psychoanalytic terminology Freudian psychology ...
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