primary process
in psychoanalytic theory, unconscious mental activity in which there is free, uninhibited flow of psychic energy from one idea to another. This mental process operates without regard for logic or reality, is dominated by the pleasure principle, and provides hallucinatory fulfillment of wishes. Examples are the dreams, fantasies, and magical thinking of young children. These processes are posited to predominate in the id. Also called primary process thinking. See also prelogical thinking.