the Wakefield Doctrine

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

You knew this wasn’t going to be a simple, conventional, easy to ‘get’ approach to understanding the behavior of the people in our lives, didn’t you?

To recapitulate briefly:

the Wakefield Doctrine maintains that we live our lives in one of three worldviews (personal realities). That what others refer to as personality types are, in actuality, reflections of our efforts to contend with the world as we relate ourselves to it. Further, the Doctrine would allow that,  if we correctly infer which (of these three worldviews) the other person is experiencing, we will know more about them than they know about themselves. The Wakefield Doctrine is intended to be used as a tool to aid us in these efforts, meant as a perspective (on) the lives and behavior of the people around us that, correctly employed will lead to a greater understanding of why people do the things that they do.  Unlike most other personality systems and ‘theories’, the Wakefield Doctrine offers nothing that you can directly impart to another person. Your use of the Doctrine can only lead to a better understanding of the other person, the Wakefield Doctrine  will not serve you in any efforts to:  convince another person to act differently, treat you better, stop that annoying habit, know you for what you really are, quit smoking, have more frequent sex, show the world the side that you know is there, get ‘A’s, eat less, lose weight, get a better job and, finally start helping around the house. The Wakefield Doctrine is for you, not them.

If you learn and apply the principles of the Wakefield Doctrine to your own life, then you will be in a position to not just improve your life and circumstances. You will be able to improve yourself. As a person. A person who must interact and deal with people who: you work for, who work for you, those you love and those you would love, those you hate and those you would rather not be distracted by, family, friends, the man in the car at the gas pump ahead of you and the girl who delivers the mail. They are all a part of your world today and that is what the Wakefield Doctrine is intended to be used on. And….and! the best thing about using the Wakefield Doctrine as a tool in your efforts to self-improve yourself is: you do not have to do anything that you are not capable of all along.

So, first step:  read up on the worldview of the Outsider (clarks) and the Predator (scotts) and the Herd Members (rogers), now what? Now, the fun. Observe the people in your life. Fact of the matter, if you are still reading, it is a pretty safe bet that you get a kick out of ‘people watching’. Pay special attention to interactions between people. Find one person in your daily life and start with them. You have three personality types to choose from… go ahead and throw out the one you know they are not!… ok! now keeping the characteristics of the 2 remaining worldviews in mind, which seems to be more consistent with the behavior of the person. Don’t worry about getting the answer fast…they are not going to change their worldview. The more you observe them, the simpler the choice will be, no… the more inevitable the choice will be! This is the fun part. Put yourself in their head…go ahead, they won’t know!

1. does the person seem distant…un-emotional when they should be emotional, emotional when they should not be, do they seem to shy away from attention, do they mumble when you know they are quite capable of speaking clearly, does their fashion sense seem a bit… conflicted?  boots and mini-shirts…too much jewelry, is their posture really poor, are they funny in a quiet surprising way?
2. no way! they are quick and seem to be everywhere but they won’t know what you are doing, relax…do they seem to probe and challenge constantly? are they funny and aggravating and do they always seem to push it just a little too far? when you imagine ‘being them’ do you feel envious and then excited but at the same time, glad that you are not them?
3. always have an answer…not in the form of new information, in the form of ‘the last word’, very comfortable to talk to, seem to always be listening, attentive without any curiosity, do they seem to be looking for the right way to act when regarding others or the wrong way to act when others are the center of attention, they nurture without warmth, are seductive without excitement

That should be enough for Part 2.

1) Anti-mimesis is a philosophical position that holds the direct opposite of Aristotelian mimesis. Its most notable proponent is Oscar Wilde, who opined in his 1889 essay The Decay of Lying that, “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life”.
The philosophy holds that art sets the aesthetic principles by which people perceive life, and does not imitate life. What is found in life and nature is not what is really there, but is that which artists have taught people to find there, through art.

Halliwell asserts that the notion that life imitates art derives from classical notions that can be traced as far back as the writings of Aristophanes of Byzantium, and does not negate mimesis but rather “displace[s] its purpose onto the artlike fashioning of life itself”.
In George Bernard Shaw‘s preface to Three Plays he wrote, “I have noticed that when a certain type of feature appears in painting and is admired as beautiful, it presently becomes common in nature; so that the Beatrices and Francescas in the picture galleries of one generation come to life as the parlor-maids and waitresses of the next.” …His…understanding that “the real world does not exist…men and women are made by their own fancies in the image of the imaginary creatures in my youthful fictions, only much stupider.”  ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_imitating_art)

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

While it is totally permitted,  (TToT Secret Manual Seventh Ed. v. 23), I am going diverge from the traditional Second Weekend List for 2 reasons: 1) I have fallen nearly totally behind on my Commentation on the other Posts this Week and b) Dyanne.

First things first, the photo?  Above is the first photo from the first Wakefield Doctrine RoadTrip. It is the view from the rental car ( Company Motto: ‘no! we want you to drive these at 100 mph, they’re rentals!’) as I drove West on Rt 80 outside of Salt Lake City.  I post this photo today because it is a graphic representation of how grateful I am for the Wakefield Doctrine (…sigh of relief from stage left).  There is much to be said for the Wakefield Doctrine and road trips and …home movies (…intake of breath from stage left), but today I thought I would try this variation of my expression of the TToT.

For any new Readers out there, the thing we do here starts with a List of Ten Things of Thankful, the thing we have here is a small (but growing) community of people who, (for reasons as varied as their geophysical location), contribute a list of things in their life that they feel grateful for and we do this each weekend. What these Lists really are, of course, are insights into lives.  and that is so the cool thing about this here bloghop here, this sharing. And, speaking for myself here, it is not just sharing in the traditional ‘girlie/it-takes-a-village sense’! There is also a ‘hey!-look-at-this-chainsaw-I-just-bought-lets-find-something-to-cut-down vibe! (At least there can be, depending on who shows up here on any given weekend…which is Cool Feature Number 16! a growing core of ‘regulars’ here at TToT-ville. A constantly changing group, sort of. In any event, what gets created here each weekend is becoming more and more what Lizzi’s original vision for this bloghop.  If there is a term like tabla rasa except that it would be applying to an active exchange of ideas among like-minded people, it would go here:

Anyway, that my neutron gratitude list for today. I would list all of my co-hostinae individually here to thank, but my  Post this particular Sunday is more about the total group of people who are participating here this weekend. I’m invoking one of the Secret Rules because I want to see the different benefits that come from the creation of a ‘space’ like the TToT bloghop.  A virtual place that allows people to exchange: thoughts, ideas, things-that-piss-them-off, ambitions, fears, doubts and hopes.  And even if it lasts only 2 days, that’s still pretty damn cool  plus…plus!! you can post photos and videos and pretty much anything you might want to share with the ever-change group here.

(Speaking of videos!  here is the first video of the Wakefield Doctrine Road Trips… when I got to where I was going in the photo that heads this Post. Adult language tastefully used!)