ABSTRACT
Recent years have spawned a multitude of theories about adult development that clamor for attention both in popular books and respected journals. The essential feature of most of these theories lies in their conceptualization of the adult life course as a series of stages, levels, issues, or problems that most everyone has to pass through or confront. The imposition of a conceptual framework of stages or crises on an individual life tends to exclude detailed consideration of the life-structural and life-historical contexts of a person's life choices. The study of life choices from the perspectives of the life structure and the life history confirms the falsehood of optimistic outlooks on character development. When a person fantasizes freely about ideal life outcomes in the future, an intriguing process occurs. The bonds of practical considerations lose their strength; unfulfilled yearnings predominate in shaping images of how one might instead live.
