ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the three forms of thinking before delving into each clinically and theoretically. It uses the term magical thinking to refer to thinking that relies on omnipotent fantasy to create a psychic reality that the individual experiences as "more real" than external reality for example, as seen in the use of the manic defense. The chapter uses the term dream thinking to refer to the thinking people do in the process of dreaming. Dream thinking generates genuine psychological growth. Such thinking may be done on one's own, but a point is inevitably reached beyond which one needs another person with whom to think/dream one's most deeply troubling emotional experience. The chapter discusses, transformative thinking, is a form of dream thinking that involves a radical alteration of the terms by which one orders one's experience. One transcends the categories of meaning that have previously been felt to be the only possible categories with which to organize one's experience.
