Fixation

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Fixation in human psychology refers to the state where an individual becomes obsessed with an attachment to another human, animal or inanimate object. A Freudian belief that, if during one of the psychosexual stages of development, a person did not receive appropriate gratification during a specific stage, or that a specific stage left a particularly strong impression, that person's personality would reflect that particular stage throughout their adult life. Fixation to intangibles (i.e., ideas, ideologies etc.) can also occur (see Zealotry and Fanaticism).

Fixation in alchemy refers to changing a chemically volatile substance into a "fixed" state that is not affected by fire. It is one of the 12 vital alchemical processes required for transformation.

Fixation in biochemistry, histology, cell biology and pathology refers to the technique of preserving a specimen for microscopic study, making it intact and stable, but dead.

Fixation in law refers to works entitled to copyright protection (e.g. music, literature, paintings, etc.) Only works fixed in a medium can be copyrighted, not the ideas behind those works.

Fixation in vision (visual fixation) refers to maintaining the gaze in a constant direction. Humans (and other animals with a fovea) constantly alternate saccades and visual fixations. For example, in reading or speed reading, fixation refers to the human eye focusing upon an artifact of printed text such as white space or a word. A human being reads by fixating his eyes from one artifact to the next. Visual fixation is never perfectly steady: fixational eye movements occur involuntarily.

Gene fixation in population genetics occurs when the frequency of a gene reaches 1.

Fixation in business refers to when a company is reluctant to change to suit current market conditions. Can lead to an escalation of poor decisions.

Fixation in biology and ecology refers to a process by which a chemical element is converted from an inorganic form to a compound which is more readily available and useful to a living organism. See nitrogen fixation, carbon fixation.

Synonyms: obsession, immobilization, adhesive (n.)