Anticathexes are defined as energy invested to keep the Id from acting in an irrational or immoral way. Which option best matches this description?

Anticathexes are defined as energy invested to keep the Id from acting in an irrational or immoral way. Which option best matches this description?

• A. Energy resulting from Eros
• B. Investment in image
• C. Investment in real thing
• D. Energy invested to keep Id from acting

Answer: (D)

Anticathexes describe the psychic energy the ego uses to hold back the Id’s impulses, preventing irrational or immoral actions. In Freudian dynamics, energy (often called libido) can be invested in objects or ideas (cathexis), and anticathexis is the counter-investment that restrains those impulses to keep behavior in check. This directly matches the idea of energy devoted to preventing the Id from acting. The other options describe energy directed toward specific objects, appearances, or real things, which do not capture the restraining function of anticathexis.

Anticathexes describe the psychic energy the ego uses to hold back the Id’s impulses, preventing irrational or immoral actions. In Freudian dynamics, energy (often called libido) can be invested in objects or ideas (cathexis), and anticathexis is the counter-investment that restrains those impulses to keep behavior in check. This directly matches the idea of energy devoted to preventing the Id from acting. The other options describe energy directed toward specific objects, appearances, or real things, which do not capture the restraining function of anticathexis.