magical thinking
Psychology and Psychoanalysis
noun
The belief (specially characteristic of early childhood and of many mental illnesses) that thoughts, wishes, or special but causally irrelevant actions can cause or influence external events; thinking founded on this belief.
Origin
1930s; earliest use found in Journal of Educational Sociology.
- night trader
- night vision
- night-wake
- night waking
- night walk
- nightwalker
- nightwalking
- night wanderer
- night-wandering
- night warbler
- nightward
- nightwards
- night watch
- night-watcher
- night-watching
- nightwatchman
- night water
- nightwear
- night wind
- night work
- night worker
- nighty
- nighty-night
- re-emergence
- re-emergent