Anticathexis

Anticathexis is a psychoanalytical concept that Freud proposed is responsible for controlling how psychic energy is used by the id.

Psychoanalytic theory suggests that psychic energy is used by the id, ego, and superego with the id being the first place the energy goes. Cathexis is when this energy is directed towards something such as an object, another person, or a concept. The id can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality therefore it can have impulses that are negative, immoral, or socially unacceptable. When the ego blocks these unacceptable desires anticathexis occurs. Anticathexis blocks the unacceptable cathexes from the id. Repression is probably the most common and well known anticathexis.