omnipotence of thought

om·nip·o·tence of thought

(om-nip'ō-tens thawt),

A childish or magical thought process whereby instantaneous gratification of fantasies and wishes is believed to be imminent.

Farlex Partner Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012

omnipotence of thought

In psychiatry, the infantile concept of reality in which one expects all of one's wishes to be instantly gratified.

References in periodicals archive ?

The images in this show seemed to posit that Freud was right when he said that making art is magical thinking--as dreams are--and that art is the last place where the omnipotence of thought holds sway.

Tom Hammick: FLOWERS

The polemic between Erasmus and Luther over the free will flared up Valla's speculations about the limitations of reason and omnipotence of thought, the dissymmetry and interplay between knowing and willing and his doubts about philosophy's power to define the perimeter of their theological philosophical debate.

Lorenzo Valla's Franciscan vision

The male imagination, disavowing all involvement in the production of monstrous offspring, attributed dissimilarity to the vis imaginativa, thereby crediting the mother with something like omnipotence of thought. Huet cites Pietro Pomponazzi, professor of natural philosophy at Padua (writing in the sixteenth century): "when a woman imagines something during the sexual act, she indeed imprints its image on the fetus" (17).