magical thinking

American  

noun

1. a conviction that thinking is equivalent to doing, occurring in dreams, the thought patterns of children, and some types of mental disorders, especially obsessive-compulsive disorder.

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Example Sentences

The language of manifesting your dreams into reality might sound nonsensical or contrived, but to JOP, his magical thinking became his saving grace.

From Los Angeles Times

OpenAI noted that the woman in the case study said she was prone to “magical thinking,” and was on an antidepressant and a stimulant and had gone long stretches without sleep before her hospitalizations.

From The Wall Street Journal

The exhibition covers dreams, eros, war, European exiles and magical thinking.

From The Wall Street Journal

We in the space community, in my view, have been willing to engage in magical thinking this whole time.”

From Slate

“There is no real way to deal with everything we lose,” she observed in “The Year of Magical Thinking.”

From Los Angeles Times