The pattern that emerges is that you go from earlier stages with simpler, more black-and-white and mechanical or linear ways of functioning, towards being more self-critical, more nuanced, diverse, and—a recurring theme—towards more dialectical forms of thinking and acting. Some developmentalists make it their trademark to talk about how fabulous dialectical thinking is, the kind of thinking pioneered by Hegel and extended by Theodor Adorno, where you become less rigid in your thought structure
