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This paper deals with some of the phenomena to be found in the analysis of gifted individuals who have the capacity for abstract thinking developed to a high degree. Abstract thought is the most advanced form of the secondary process. The formation of concepts is dependent upon the withdrawal of object libido. This libido is used to cathect images, words, and finally concepts. The main categories of abstract thinking can be ordered in terms of an increasing withdrawal of object cathexis—namely, classification, quantification, and spatial relationships. The author presents a case report which shows how the three elementary categories of abstraction can be used as a defence as well as being employed in the process of adjustment to the environment. Rosen suggests that in the highly gifted individual the intermediate stages of object cathexis which occur in the development of the average person's concepts are not omitted but are dealt with pre-consciously in the manner of the lightning calculator. Such intermediary stages, while close to the primary process, are also available to the secondary process. Such a proximity to the primary process facilitates the mobility of cathexes necessary during the stages of concept formation.