I was reading something in Slate just now and came across a word I’d never seen: decathect. Having no clue what it meant, I had to look it up immediately. Merriam-Webster doesn’t have it, online or in the 11th edition, though it does have cathexis, the investment of mental or emotional energy in someone or something. Decathect is something you might have to do after cathexis:
            de·ca·thect [dee-kuh-thekt] transitive verb. To withdraw
            one’s feelings of attachment from a person, idea or object, as
            in anticipation of a future loss.
What a useful concept! I gather that cathexis is meant as an opposite to catharsis, a purging, but decathexis is subtly different because of the anticipation factor.