In this essay, i make the case that a new theory of adult development is needed that is no longer a one-sidedly ‘left-hemisphere’ enterprise. By this annotation I refer to the bi-hemispheric structure of the human mind. Specifically, in this essay I assert that a theory of adult development fails for 2 main reasons: (1) exclusion of sense making as dialectical thinking, (2) failure to honor the intrinsic relationship between meaning making (ED) and sense making (CD), the first of which is mainly grounded in right-hemisphere experience while the second is anchored in left-hemisphere re-presentation of experience.

2020 ILR submitted to ILR rev1 OL