Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of personality that maintains that Thursday has gots to be the most open-minded, and yet so-full-of-promise Day of the whole damn week!)
Totally alert and rememberancing1 Readers will recall that the week started with questions concerning the possibility to have ‘merged worldviews’
First from Cyndi (‘ Pictimilitude ‘)
“Your post got me thinking about something: is it possible for the different personality types to surface at different times, depending on the need?”then from Melanie (over at: ‘Scribbles and Smiles’ )
“That’s interesting! Viewing the world from one of the other two personalities in times of stress. I never thought about it like that…“
So here we are on Thursday, the day that feels a bit like the combination of Ed Norton and Brad Pitt (in Fight Club), and we have not yet addressed the Question being raised by our new, yet quite astute Readers.
The Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks,scotts and rogers) proposes that all people are born with the potential to perceive the world around them in (one) of three characteristic ways (aka worldviews) and that at an early age, for reasons not yet understood, everyone picks one worldview and that is the environment in which their (adult) personalities develop. While living in the very real world of one of these three worldviews (that of the Outsider or the Predator or the Herd member) we always retain the capacity to see the world as ‘the other two’ would. These ‘other two’ remain with us and represent a capacity to develop that remains un-realized in most, but totally useful to the small number who understand the potential of the vestigial worldviews.
We cool? Correctamundo!7
The thing we want to say about the matter of the ‘merging of personality types’ is actually two things:
- it is not un-common to see traits and behaviors and reactions characteristic of the ‘non-predominant worldviews’ show up in times of stress (both the bad stress and the ‘good’ stress), this is simply a mimicking of the styles of the other two personality types
- in some of us, the secondary aspects are fairly well-developed, acting, as the Progenitor roger (and Molly) refer to as a ‘style’ or ‘a type of problem solving’…but it is necessary to understand that these occurrences of merged styles does not alter the individual’s worldview! a clark, for example, can be observed acting in a very scottian manner if there is a significant threat to something they hold dear… but they are acting (scottian) in the worldview of the Outsider
- not everyone has strongly developed secondary aspects! When you tell a person about the Doctrine and they just stare at you, then you are safe in assuming that they do not have a developed secondary clarklike aspect8
1) yes, that’s a real word …to a roger!2
2) and if you think this is to disrespect the rogers out there, the answer is, “you’re totally wrong, …scott“3
3) while the example cited here is not in the ‘rogerian expression‘ class, it is meant as a marker for a quality of rogers that will help you distinguish a roger from a scott on the basis of quality and application of malapropisms4
4) when a scott uses the incorrect word or the correct word incorrectly, it is because they do not have it right in their damn vocabularies, when a roger uses the wrong word (or phrase) you will know it because it is quite deliberate (if not unconscious)5 and clarks? use the wrong word??! hah! ‘as if”6
5) and is remarkably aggressive in this
6) hey, clarks live in the world of our minds, albeit a semi-emotionally-desolate landscape, but we will use the words that we want to use, if you don’t like it…too frickin bad…lol how ‘forward’ are we? …footnote-istically speaking
7) very excellent scene from ‘Pulp Fiction’ (link upon request, valid ID required lol)
8) you want to know how cool this Doctrine is? the thing about how, if you tell someone about the Wakefield Doctrine and you get a non-reaction…well we can tell you how they will respond based on their personality types ‘course, it won’t do them any good, though you might benefit by having a quick heads up on their reactions… muy cool, non?
About clarkscottroger
Good morning from NY that is snow covered this morning. Seriously, love how you can be one personality type and then tragedy or chaos strikes and you can react in another one. You are right those, because I saw this last week with the aftermath of the hurricane and how those who act one way normally reacted a totally different way. So this is so very true.
@Janine
“…act one way normally reacted a totally different way.” And yet, (the underlying premise of) the Wakefield Doctrine would maintain that these ways are not so ‘un-normal’. And therein* lies the potential of the perspective offered by the Wakefield Doctrine to be used as an approach to self-improvement!
(…to be continued)
*yes, you read that correctly I did use the word ‘therein’**
** see today’s Post***
*** the section on clarks and the use of language…lol
Of all 3, the scotts are the least apt to utilize the ability to see the world through the eyes of the clarks and rogers. They (scotts) do not consider self-improvement as necessary because they believe that they already fine just the way they are. There is the self-confidence. The assured belief that they are correct.
@Jennifer
totally agree (though I suspect rogers are prone to the same thing, only for a ‘different’ reasons)!
The Wakefield Doctrine is so amazing that… it (somehow) pre-selects/pre-qualifies those who would be interested in ways to self-improve themselves (lol)
and the way that it (the Doctrine) accomplishes this is that even if a person is a scott or a roger, they must have a strong secondary clarklike aspect…which serves to ‘give them eyes’ plus (by definition, the clarklike aspect allows for the hyper-inquistiveness of this most agile of personality types!)
LOL. You had me laughing at: #3, “not having a secondary clarklike aspect.” I told this to someone in my family and all I got was crickets chirping. HAHAH. Some days, though I’m pretty sure the “scott” is the tertiary personality type for me, it totally comes through and I have just to take charge and say, “That’s right!” :D
@telling ‘other people’ about the Doctrine is more challenging than it has any right to be… all depends, of course, on the personality types of the other person. Should do a Post on that next.
Lol
a lot of the clarks here (at the Doctrine) have secondary scotts, but then Molly has a very clear secondary rogerian aspect….
thats the ‘angle’ I” just describe the DownSprings and see what kind of trouble that can get me into…
Hmm. More to think about! I find myself acting very out of character when my children are threatened in some way, like a mother bear. Interesting!
@Amy
ya know, that’s kind of what gets the attention on the Wakefield Doctrine, as far as personality theories go! I mean, most of the mainstream typing systems try to assign a label, mostly based on self-reporting but when you are trying to assign a label to a set personality type you are un-avoidably limited. The Doctrine, by focusing on context, allows for much more an accurate description not only of the person in a normal situation, but especially the extreme situations.
..if you were a clark (not saying, lol…thats for you to figure out, but just saying you were) then on the routine day-to-day events of life, you would tend to be easy-going and open-minded…to an extreme, so much so, that sometimes people think they can take advantage of your better nature. They will misinterpret your willingness to avoid conflict as weakness and if they try and push you, (of the three personality types) you are very likely willing to let it go, unless… lol unless it is important to you. The thing about clarks is that we tend to be distracted (often mistaken for not being ‘on the ball’) or preoccupied (often thought to be a lack of enthusiasm) and laid back (too often thought of as being un-emotionally involved). Aren’t they always surprised, though when they succeed in getting you ‘riled’? lol