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[[James ]] Strachey's rendering of [[Freud]]'s term ''Besetzung'', and now a standard term in the [[psychoanalytic ]] [[vocabulary ]] of the [[English]]-[[speaking ]] [[world]].

One of the [[meanings ]] of ''Besetzung'' is the occupation of a town or territory.

Like its [[French ]] equivalent ''investissement'', ''Besetzung'' is in common usage, and [[Freud]]'s [[choice ]] of terminology reflects his usual reluctance to use a highly technical vocabulary.

Like "[[libido]]", "[[cathexis]]," and the verb "[[cathect]]", coined by [[Freud]]'s English translator on the basis of a Greek verb [[meaning ]] "to occupy," have quasi-classical connotations that are not [[present ]] in the original [[German]].

[[Freud]] uses the term to describe the [[process ]] whereby a quantity of [[psychical ]] [[energy ]] becomes attached to an [[object]] or [[idea]].

In his earliest writings, Freud describes neurones as [[being ]] cathected with a quantity of energy or a quota of [[affect]].

There is some variation in usage in the later [[texts]], but the basic [[notion ]] of quantities of energy remains fairly constant.

Thus, to say that an object is libidinally cathected means that it is charged with [[sexual ]] energy deriving from sources [[internal ]] to the [[psyche]].

In [[Freud]]'s second [[topography]], the [[id]], or the [[instinctual ]] pole ofthe [[personality]], is said to be the source of all cathexes.