In
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 b ...
, anticathexis, or countercathexis, is the energy used by the
ego to bind the primitive impulses of the
Id. Sometimes the ego follows the instructions of the
superego
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 const ...
in doing so; sometimes however it develops a double-countercathexis, so as to block feelings of guilt and anxiety deriving from the superego, as well as id impulses.
Repression and isolation
Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts in ...
saw the establishment of a permanent anticathexis as a prerequisite for successful
psychological repression
Repression is a key concept of psychoanalysis, where it is understood as a defence mechanism that "ensures that what is unacceptable to the conscious mind, and would if recalled arouse anxiety, is prevented from entering into it." According to psyc ...
. He also saw countercathexis as playing a central role in
isolation.
In a late work, Freud further distinguished between the external anticathexis of repression and what he called “internal anticathexis" (i.e. alteration of the ego through
reaction formation In psychoanalytic theory, reaction formation (german: Reaktionsbildung) is a defense mechanism in which emotions and impulses which are anxiety-producing or perceived to be unacceptable are mastered by exaggeration of the directly opposing tendency ...
).
Figure-ground
Anticathexis has also been linked to the phenomenon of
figure-ground, in that it may entail the suppression of the margin or ground of a perceptual field.
[R. Boothby, ''Freud as Philosopher'' (2001) p. 77]
See also
References
{{Reflist, 2}
Further reading
*
J. Laplanche/J.-B. Pontalis, ''The Language of Psychoanalysis'' (2012)
Psychoanalytic terminology
Freudian psychology