Sublimation & Cathexis
I would say subliminal is more cognitive, while cathexis is more emotional, though can be triggered/catalysed cognitive or subliminal.

Subliminal is hard to define though, and cathexis from the field of psychoanalysis is kind of speculative. However there is obviously some kind of mechanism occuring, and having good words for the phenomenas occuring in the brain is useful, but prone to misunderstandings.

The wikipedia article is useful: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathexis