The ways we know, think and believe about a whole variety of key areas - different forms of discourse, psychotherapy as well as religion - have much more in common than is usually perceived. In preference to Freud's idea that illusions are the expression of wish-fulfilment, the author of this study uses Winnicott's concept of illusion, as a life-long, ever-changing way of coping with the anxiety of gaps and space. Through a series of parallels running across different disciplines, Michael Jacobs demonstrates the possible analysis of modes of thinking and belief, from intuitive pre-thinking, through authority-driven thinking and belief, and personal and polymathic knowledge, to un-knowing, the last concept being one that is shared by Bion, Winnicott and a major mystical tradition. Using this theoretical model the book provides a map to how clients (and indeed therapists) might think and believe, suggesting ways in which they may be supported as they shift through different modes, with a