cathecting

Verb

cathect (third-person singular simple present cathects, present participle cathecting, simple past and past participle cathected)

1. (transitive) To focus one's emotional energies on someone or something.
   • 1978 [Simon & Schuster], M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Travelled, 2012, Random House (Rider), page 105,
     The feeling of love is the emotion that accompanies the experience of cathecting. Cathecting, it will be remembered, is the process by which an object becomes important to us. Once cathected, the...