fixation
Other forms: fixations
Fixation is when something is stuck firmly to another surface — or when you mind is stuck obsessively on one person, thing, or idea. Your parents' fixation on healthy foods means fruit for dessert every single night.
The Latin root of fixation means "to fasten or fix," and fixation is used in this literal way in technical contexts. A science experiment might involve the fixation of one chemical to another, for example. Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud is responsible for the "obsessive interest" meaning, emphasizing childhood fixations that carry into adulthood. You might see your attachment to your mobile phone as perfectly normal, while your parents consider it an unhealthy fixation.
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the activity of fastening something firmly in position
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an abnormal state in which development has stopped prematurelysynonyms: arrested development, infantile fixation, regressiontype of:abnormalcy, abnormalityan abnormal physical condition resulting from defective genes or developmental deficiencies
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an unhealthy and compulsive preoccupation with something or someonetype of:preoccupationan idea that preoccupies the mind and holds the attention
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(histology) the preservation and hardening of a tissue sample to retain as nearly as possible the same relations they had in the living bodysynonyms: fixingtype of:preservationa process that saves organic substances from decay
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Vocabulary lists containing fixation
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