Essential Tiedeman: anchoring the North Star for human development.(work of Tiedeman, Anna Miller)

Tiedeman was a brilliant icon in counseling and psychology. He was and is the North Star to emulate because he could dance with theory, practice, and life.

In 1970, invoking the practice side of his decision-making theory, Tiedeman accepted a consultation at the Appalachia Education Laboratory, in Charleston, West Virginia, where we met. He would later say, "That visit changed my professional and personal world forever." At that time, Tiedeman's eminence had already been established, and he was casting around for new ways to frame his thought.

Tiedeman's thought provided a mirror for his peers to see more clearly their own thought. Many claimed he was difficult to understand. Part of that was his choice of language and part of it came from the worldview (Newtonian/Cartesian) of many of his readers. We now know from the new science that one cannot observe anything without changing it. When perception is owned, the language becomes "Tell me more." rather than "It is not clear." Seen from a development perspective, one person's clarity is another person's confusion (Loevinger, 1976). Nevertheless, Tiedeman was held in high esteem in that almost everyone respected his thinking.

This article honors Tiedeman by letting him speak about the ideas closest to his heart, starting with (a) his professional credo, then moving to (b) his Harvard Studies in Career Development, (c) his declaration in 1983 about career, (d) his thoughts about statistics of vocational guidance, and (e) his recognition of the science necessary for personal development.

Tiedeman's Professional Credo

 
    I am passionate about three professional matters based upon half a 
    century's service in guidance. First, guidance is the potential 
    catalyst for personal, social, and universal growth and development. 
    Second, present guidance theory (with the exception of Miller- 
    Tiedeman's process theory, 1988) is too narrow, too shallow, and too 
    thoroughly ignored to meet the world's momentary crises. It takes a 
    world unafraid of universe-responsible creativity. Third, work on a 
    general theory of career development, already started by Miller- 
    Tiedeman (1988, 1989), should be given first priority on a universe 
    agenda. Miller-Tiedeman chose a scientific world view for her 
    process theory. She learned from several physicists including Capra 
    (1975, 1982), Prigogine (1980), and Bohm (1980). Since that time 
    other physicists joined into study of the evolving Quantum paradigm 
    and its parallelism with life and consciousness paradigms. Read 
    across disciplines to locate these sources, as they will provide 
    much insight on "Quantum's new and dazzling social vision." 
    (Tiedeman, 1996, p. 115) 

Tiedeman believed that the life-as-process theory/philosophy (Miller-Tiedeman, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1999) would give the individual the freedom to pursue his or her own development creatively because it acknowledges that the whole organizes the parts, which supports the individual in responding to his or her "whole," not something proscribed by another. This becomes possible because it was constructed from principles in the new science (Bohm, 1980; Capra, 1982; Hawking, 1988; Prigogine, 1980). Einstein, on more than one occasion, suggested that one cannot solve a problem on a level at which it was created. In other words, one cannot get to process through the lens of Newtonian/Cartesian science, the basis of traditional career. It is just not robust enough. With the exception of his statistical writing, Tiedeman believed that a universe agenda ought to support self-defined growth. The Information System for Vocational Decisions (Tiedeman, 1968) was a tool pointed in that direction, and the Internet delivered the dream: Personal information summarized at every turn along with the opportunity for unlimited growth. Tiedeman (1996) was thrilled with its potential for fulfilling what he called the "new and dazzling social vision" (p. 115).