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.

---

Example Sentences

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

An imaginative amalgam of astutely observed naturalism and fantastical distortions, Rousseau’s paintings combine so-called primitive traditions of folk art, Byzantine mosaics and pre-Renaissance Gothic painting, as well as magical thinking and the candid spontaneity of children’s art.

From The Wall Street Journal

Each of these proposals attempts to address real problems but are either the result of magical thinking or will do more harm than good.

From Barron's

Last year a study put paid to magical thinking.

From The Wall Street Journal