Rosen describes some of the problems in analysis of gifted individuals, with special emphasis on the use of abstract thinking as a regressive defense. He reviews the analytic concepts of the development of abstract thinking, concluding that abstract thought consists of varying degrees of decathexis of objects in order to deal with certain nonrepresentational aspects of their attributes. A detailed case report illustrates the utilization of each of the specific elements of abstract thinking in the service of the primary process as regressive defenses, and at the same time in the service of the secondary processes as special gifts or abilities. Rosen also comments on the difference between the gifted individual and the schizophrenic: the intermediate stages of concept formation in the former are not only close to the primary process as in the schizophrenic, but are also particularly available to the secondary process, whereas the schizophernic can use them only for instinctual discharge.