Functions of Counterfactual Thinking

What if . . . null ? With these words human beings achieve the capacity to catapult them­selves beyond the muck and malignancy of the actual into the liberating realm of the possible. What if you had invested more in mutual funds last year? What if you had learned to speak French as a child? Or, what if you had bought the winning million-dollar lottery ticket last week? Such articulations of a possible yet untrue past are called...