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

The funny thing about (writing) a blog is that the more you write, the easier it is to write and the more you write, the more dissatisfied you are with what you (would) write.

Thank god for archived Posts!

no! you’re right! I don’t have to write a Post today. But the thing about the Wakefield Doctrine, (in general), and this blog, (in particular), is that half the fun is in reading what I’ve written. It’s no secret that the Posts in late 2013 and (most of) 2014, were vastly more entertaining that the current year’s content. Now, to be fair, I realize that the content over the years has changed (and developed) and the early years were really fun because the topics were so simple: “what is this Doctrine thing?”,   “What the hell are you talking about, three personality types!!!” and  “...for the last time, I’m telling you, I’m all three, but especially whichever one you say that I’m not.”

ok! I’m feeling much, much better now.  lol, no! seriously! this blog thing is so amazing. Here I am this morning, feeling like I’ve lost the whole ‘start typing and it will write itself’ mojo and so I concede with a reprint (knowing that there’s a good chance that my intro to the reprint will turn into something) but then… then!! on that last line?  The one  ‘..to be fair..’?  It took me a second to reread it and it hit me that I wrote the characteristic response appropriate to the three worldviews (clarks and scotts and rogers), without the slightest conscious intent.

cool.

(but I’m out of time, so here’s the reprint from October 27, 2014)

‘the most important’ Principle of our favorite personality theory? That one is easy! The most important Principle of the Wakefield Doctrine is: we all live our lives in one of three personal reality(s). We have the potential for it (our reality) to be one of three, at an early age it happens that we find ourselves in:

• the reality of the Outsider (clarks)…another, very useful way to say this is, we relate ourselves to the world around us as ‘the Outsider’
• the life of the Predator (scotts)… they would say, ‘life is happening now, there are threats and there are opportunities, life is neither bad nor good, it simply is…lighten up and do something!’
• the world of the Herd Member (rogers) the world has Rules, there are 2,398 ways to do a thing and only one of those is the Right Way, a good life is the result of giving your all to find that way and be the example of why it’s the right way

Simple enough, right? Oh, one more (yeah, a very important Principle): these worldviews? real. seriously. real as in there are threats and prey and traps to be sniffed out, if you’re living as a scott ok?  the world is a quantifiable place? why do you think rogers make the best engineers and Chefs? The reason I emphasize this, is that, this is the Most Important Difference between the Doctrine and those other personality systems.
That is: I don’t find myself having to: ‘speak clearly, for crying out loud’ or ‘don’t slouch!’ or ‘use apostrophes’ or ‘great insight, now back it up with some empirical evidence, already!’ because I’m trying to be difficult, (well, maybe a little). I’m doing it because those are coping strategies that works best for a person who is trying to get by in the reality of ‘the Outsider’.
Bottom line? the ‘personality types of the Wakefield Doctrine are not categories, and they are not matrixeseses… does factoring in…..er factors, place me in a certain group according to my preferences and traits and peccadilloes? No. That’s not what we do here at the Wakefield Doctrine.
The reason I refer to myself as a clark* is that it accurately and consistently reflects ‘how I relate myself to the world around me’.
And scotts are not just Tasmanian devils, (barely able to restrain their enthusiasm), teaching pre-K children with a fiercely protective love and, given half a chance, inclined to throw the class in a mini-van for a road trip to the stockyards, rather than bore them to sleep with rote lessons. No! they are people who have developed the necessary skills and strategies to succeed in the world of Predator and prey.
And rogers know that how they do whatever they do, counts. The fastidiousness that they bring to everything they do, (from cooking a meal to learning to use a compound bow) is simply what the world demands.
To apply the Wakefield Doctrine does not involve: answer(ing) the following questions. (there is no) rate yourself. All that you need to do is ask: ‘how do you relate yourself to the world around you?’

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