In this article the authors use the imaginal worlds of three children's stories to explore variations in the affective quality of potential space. Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, C. S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and Norton Juster's The Phantom Toolbooth, each contain a metaphor of transition in which the protagonist moves from the real space of the narrative into the imaginary space where the action takes place—the protagonists are altered and alter their own worlds. The authors will use these metaphors as analogues to differing qualities of imaginary space, including the collapse of meaning in schizoid states, the play of meaning in mentalization and the adventurousness of negotiating separation. These metaphors of transitioning into imaginary space may be used to think about disruptions in development as they manifest in clinical process.