Month: March 2022 | the Wakefield Doctrine

Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine-

March 30, 2022 By clarkscottroger

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

It is hosted by Denise

This week we rejoin Ian Devereaux in ‘the Case of the Missing Fig Leaf’. (The Chapter that leads to this week’s installment? Click Here)

The prompt word is:

MATCH

“On the off-chance I don’t register on your visitor-to-be-murdered app, I was here a few months ago with a guy, well, kind of an older man, don’t get me wrong, I liked him and everything, and he was heads-over on me, if you get my drift,“ Stacey stopped mid-sentence, turned and smiling indulgently towards where Anton Rilke and I sat, continued for the benefit of the receptionist, “These two… men, sitting all polite-and-professional in your waiting area, they’re here with me, not the other way around.”

To my right, rising from a chair as uncomfortable as only one designed and carved five hundred years ago could be, I heard Anton say, in not quite soto a voce, “Not strictly in accordance with procedure…” his last words not quite buried under an imploded laugh, “Mein Gott in Himmel.”

Upon our arrival at the Eibingen Abbey, the credentials of one Detective Major Anton Rilke got us through two levels of buffering, ending here, in a reception area facing a young woman wearing a uniform from the Middle Ages, pretending to be busy reading the computer display on her desk; behind her, a single, unmarked door, and above that, a mural depicting the Garden of Eden and the figure of a dark-haired woman pushing an archangel to the side as she walked through a gate into a bleak and hostile landscape, overhead was the obligatory sky full of heavenly witnesses, mostly scandalized cherubim, surrounding a pissed-off-looking God.

In the hope of preventing our young friend from starting a textbook grudge match, I stood, and the sight of of Stacey’s nearly-white, and improbably-straight blond hair triggered a full-on flashback to sixth grade at Our Lady of Mercy School; it was the next-to-the-last day of the year, the nun on recess duty lead a kid with a bloody nose into the building to see the nurse, and the neighborhood ice cream man, trying to score some early revenue, had parked on the far side of a four-foot chainlink fence. Diane Arnold, a classmate who wore her hair in a style my dog-eared childhood-memory offered as a ‘page boy’, all squared lines in front and back serving only to accentuate eyes that even a pre-pubescent boy could feel alarmed by; well, Diane looked at the truck, looked back at the schoolhouse and climbed, her blue-green plaid skirt skirt as irresistible a battle flag a girlish William Wallace could ask for, demanding we join her and claim our Summer.

Anton and I stood to either side and slightly in front of our recently accepted member of Yale Law Class of 2025 when the door behind the receptionist opened without preamble; I felt a spark of pain at the side of the neck; before I hit the floor, I saw my official liaison from the Wiesbaden PD collapse as well, I stayed conscious long enough to hear Stacey say, “No fricken way you’re gonna get away with it a second time.”

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: Six Sentence Story, the Wakefield Doctrine

Tuesday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

March 29, 2022 By clarkscottroger

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

Quick reprint post from 2015.

But first a little contemporaneous Doctrine:

Remember: clarks think, scotts act and rogers feel.

The friend who is easiest to talk to?

they’re a clark if all you want to do is reveal a secret that must never reach anyone else’s ear (Price: well-intentioned advice, on the plus side, easily ignored)
they’re a scott if all you want to do is something fun, outrageous, sorta crazy, when you want to be reminded life is only today (Price: whatever the bail money set)
they’re a roger if you want to believe that someone understands and feels as you do (Price: a lot of others will be given the opportunity to understand)

Here’s the promised reprint

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

Seeing how, of late, we’ve been all studious and learning the use of the Wakefield Doctrine to self-improve our own selfs, lets kick back and have a mid-week break! You all deserve it*.

Lady Godiva took pity on the people of Coventry, who were suffering grievously under her husband’s oppressive taxation. Lady Godiva appealed again and again to her husband, who obstinately refused to remit the tolls. At last, weary of her entreaties, he said he would grant her request if she would strip naked and ride on a horse through the streets of the town. Lady Godiva took him at his word and, after issuing a proclamation that all persons should stay indoors and shut their windows, she rode through the town, clothed only in her long hair. Just one person in the town, a tailor ever afterwards known as Peeping Tom, disobeyed her proclamation in one of the most famous instances of voyeurism. In the story, Tom bores a hole in his shutters so that he might see Godiva pass, and is struck blind. In the end, Godiva’s husband keeps his word and abolishes the onerous taxes.

Most of you will not need me to tell you whats going on with this most…. civic of fairy tales (cautionary tale?… fable? morality play?… whatever). I will, however, address the New Reader.

New Reader? The fun (and real value) to be found in the Wakefield Doctrine lies not in being able to immediately identify Lady Godvia as a roger, her, kind-of-a-jerk, husband as a scott and …and poor Tom as a clark. It does not. The real fun (and value to ourselves, as people trying to better understand the people in our lives), lies in accepting that we have the qualities of all three of the characters in this story. ( One would represent our predominant worldview, and ‘the other two’ as our secondary and tertiary aspects, which, of course, our potential to be better (or worse) people.)

(While the more experienced Readers giggle in the back of the class and compose their smart-assed, but nevertheless perceptive interpretations of this Tale, lets review the three personality types of the Wakefield Doctrine):

clarks are the ‘personality type’ that results from growing up as ‘the Outsider’. Through no fault of their own (though, they will go through life suspecting that there was something that was their fault…but that’s a whole ‘nother Post), clarks seek to learn how to live the best life possible, they place their stock in understanding the world, and believe that what they think is missing (in their lives) is knowable and rational. They are very creative, funny and (they) see the rules of social order as just another interesting thing about all the real people around them

scotts are identified by the coping strategies that have allowed wolves, lions, dogs and other predators to thrive through history. scotts are impulsive and decisive, mercurial and sentimental, for them the world is very simple: wake up… eat, protect the pack, be alert to threats and opportunity in the day, reproduce (of course! metaphorically as well as literal! knucklehead!) and sleep. scotts are the first pick for captain …of the other team (lol…. no, think about it a little….) (if you’re reading this you were in the other team… not the first team) they are great best friends and scary adversaries

rogers are the people who grow up and develop their coping skills knowing that they are ‘a part of’, they belong. rogers live (and thrive) in a world that is quantifiable, understandable, predictable ( in an unpredictable way) and above all has Rules…. rogers live searching for the Right Way (to do things) and will go all out to help others engaged in this task… the Yearbook Committee? pretty much all rogers (with one clark or so to do the stupid work)

ok.

You now know what is necessary in order to understand why we are identifying our three main characters as we are….lets open the Post for Comments.

(New Readers? the real fun lies in what is really required to successfully identify another’s worldview, i.e. you need to see the world as the other person is experiencing it. So…. Lady Godiva’s husband? so he says, ‘sure, I’ll lower taxes if you ride naked through the streets of town’…. bet that guy had a supply of banana peels, seltzer bottles and whoopee cushions around the palace and, that naked part? And Godiva? issue a proclamation (aka a Law)… that she would ride naked (implying that she would be exposed to all) but then say…. ‘you can’t look’ god! how many times in high school did we have to deal with that kind of behavior! … Tom? clark…clark…clark oh man, dude! you don’t have to make things so difficult for yourself… she doesn’t care!)

* did we mention how the Doctrine is predicated on reality being personal? that last sentence is the perfect example of what we mean by personal reality.

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: psychology of personality, self-improvement, the Wakefield Doctrine

RePrint Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

March 28, 2022 By clarkscottroger

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

Question: is there any concern about repetition or otherwise lacking the ‘oh boy! another Wakefield Doctrine post?’

Answer: no.

Question: what’s the most surprising thing about writing this blog.

Answer: did you not read the first question and answer?

(ha ha)

The reason for this is, coincidentally or not, at the heart of the Wakefield Doctrine itself. While the Doctrine offers three personality types, complete with a depth of characteristic behaviors, traits, tropisms and peccadillae that not only serve as a guide to identify the three types, the central tenet of this thing is not a simple list of behaviors. The central tenet, (and ambition), of the Wakefield Doctrine is best expressed as, “Increasing our awareness of how we relate ourselves to the world around us and the people who make it up”. (We always comment here that, we did not say, ‘how we relate to the world, etc’ we said, ‘how we relate ourselves to the world’)

The basis for the three personality types, (of the Wakefield Doctrine), and the primary strategy for its use as a tool to self-improve oneself, is grounded in (our) relationship(s). To the world, to the people and to ourselfs.

The process of writing these blog posts, or, for that matter, reading these posts, benefit from this unifying statement. It’s akin to saying, ‘Hey! You’ve talent for painting. Everyday I want you to do a self-portrait. And, then a year later, three years later… come back and show us the true self-portrait’.

enough with the metaphyics… on with the reprint.

here from way back in 2017

It has long been my ambition to write the Perfect Wakefield Doctrine post. (One might argue about that adenoidial descriptor, it has always been my ambition, since the very first post, hell, before the very first post). In any event, I’ll give it a shot today, Monday.

The definition of perfection? A post that a total stranger, (to this blog or, for that matter, a person who has not come into contact with anyone who knows of this personalty theory), can read…once and apply it to their own life right then and there. They will look around and they will see the clarks and scotts and rogers.

As a personality theory, the Wakefield Doctrine is more the key a song is played in than it is the song. It is not a definition of a set of established behaviors, tendencies, drives and tropisms, rather it is a way of looking at (the) behaviors, tendencies, drives and tropisms that everyone you encounter today will exhibit. Including yourself. Unlike most of the personality theories that we all come into contact with, the Wakefield Doctrine is not concerned with establishing where, in a pre-established matrix of behavior, you fit best. The Wakefield Doctrine is not concerned with behavior. The Wakefield Doctrine is concerned with ‘how you relate yourself to the world around you’.

Quick set of assumptions and predicates: reality (the world around us) is, to a small, but certain extent, personal; we are, all of us, born with the capacity to experience the world around us in one of three characteristic ways: as an Outsider (clarks), as a Predator (scotts) or as a Herd Member (rogers); finally, although we all, (all of us), settle on, settle into one of the three worldviews, we never lose the capability to experience the world ‘as do the other two’.

Even though the Wakefield Doctrine is concern with relationships, it helps to have labels and definitions (provided that we do not ignore Korsybski’s famous statement, ‘the map is not the territory‘.

Hold on. Enough with the Wikipedia citations and the excessive use of semi-colons!

I think I’ll settle for a quiz that’s as close to a personality assessment as you’re going to encounter here at the Wakefield Doctrine):

When you woke up this morning, did you feel good/scared/confident that today would be a good day in ‘the world out there’? If that sounds at all reasonable, go stand over there… no, there are others already in that section of the gym, you’ll see them when you get there.

When you woke up this morning, did you get up? ok… amuse yourself while I deal with the last group of personality types. Sure, anywhere will be fine.

When you woke up this morning, (well, lets rephrase that to ‘when you transitioned from quiet concern to active concern), did you feel that although you might describe yourself as confident, you will swear in a court of law that the world makes sense if you just work hard enough at understanding it. If you don’t find that description of the start of the average day totally un-reasonable, don’t go anywhere… stay here in the middle of the crowd of participants

There you have it! The three personality types of the Wakefield Doctrine!

How do you know which you are?

Up at the top of the post, I wrote ‘how you relate yourself to the world around you’. That is how you know. Even at the Doctrine, where words are viewed as either those colored semi-candy things that you sprinkle on desert or, the yellow and black Cliff Notes that serve as badges of ‘success at any cost’ in school, sometimes we mean exactly what we say. When we say, ‘how you relate yourself to the world around you’, we do not mean, ‘how you relate to the world around you’. It is about you and your relationship to the world that the Doctrine is concerned. So read some posts, read some pages that describe the characteristics of the three worldviews. The perspective ( as an Outsider or as a Predator or as a Herd Member) through which the world is least blurry, that’s your predominant worldview, your ‘personality type’.

Congratulations! You’re a clark (or) a scott (or) a roger.

Lots more to tell you* stop by anytime!

*self-grading of attempt at the perfect Post: C+ … ok a B- (seeing how you’re a clark and clarks are nothing if they’re not willing to do most things to help the other person feel better).

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: personality types, psychology of personality, relationships, self-improvement, the Wakefield Doctrine

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

March 27, 2022 By clarkscottroger

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

Wait! Hear us out before you judge… (lol)

This is the Ten Things of Thankful (TToT) bloghop. A fifty-two times-a-year posting of a list of those people, places and things that elicit, incite and otherwise bring about, however transitory, a state of gratitude.

Convention, since inception,
Categories unbound.
Topics where found, reasoning sound.
Inspiration flows, seeking expression from pen,
Complete or not, at Ten, the end.

…err ignore that man behind the curtain (The ‘Muses’, most often depicted as benefactors and otherwise benign demigods, can also easily be imagined as the unbalanced and frequently drunk ex-g/f-friend, standing outside a night-time window, singing song fragments or, bursting into a workplace, (during working hours), extolling the good times in the past, with the sexy allure of a 3:00 am nightclub parking lot. heck… a pome in the intro to an otherwise high-minded exercise of celebrating the virtue of gratitude? Done far more degrading things under the stinging lash of Cupid than we care to admit)

1) Phyllis

(Fine-tuning new desk placement)

2) Una

3) the Wakefield Doctrine. sine qua, remember? sine qua non

4) the Six Sentence Story bloghop. (Got a hankerin’ to do some writing and such? Stop in… lots of variety, very open and welcoming group)

5) serial story-writing the Whitechapel Interlude and the Case of the Missing Fig Leaf

6) technology. like, is there anything, as borne witness on the sole basis of this post, that is not a facet of the 21st C?

7) decreasing chance of frostbite and/or Seasonal Affective Disorder (Fun Fact: of the three predominant worldviews, scotts of so prone to this affliction as to be a semi-primary characteristic.) But the weather has at times been a bit on the late-November-rainy-Monday side, experientially-speaking, it beats the heck outa Wynta

8) something, something

9) Visit from Friend of the Doctrine Cynthia last night on the Saturday Night Drive call-in, (yes, it is still a thing). Always a good thing when Cynthia calls in. We hear new tales of adventure and lessons-learned from a clark finding her way through the sometimes stressful, but always, in the end, life-enhancing process of living.

10) Secret Rule 1.3. “…keep typing, let the words call you along the path”

Music vids (lyric advisory on at least one of the following¹)

1) yeah, a little smart-assed, that…

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: personality types, the Wakefield Doctrine

Six Sentence Story- the Wakefield Doctrine-

March 24, 2022 By clarkscottroger

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

Café, le soir (van Gogh)

This is the Six Sentence Story bloghop

Denise is the host.

Hey, we so enjoyed being back in the 1880’s for our Six last week, catching up with Brother Abbott on his secret mission, we couldn’t resist hanging out a little longer. (Hint: when we talk about doing ‘walk-ons’ when writing stories? this week’s Six is a good example. To follow an ancillary character in a scene to see where they might lead.)

Prompt word:

HARMONY

Angelique Déchue, stepping from the café’s small kitchen, launched herself into the early-evening crowd, swerving and side-stepping as she moved, a sleek Bermuda cutter returning to a crowded harbor, the empty right sleeve pinned to her chartreuse tea gown like a torn sail lashed to a broken spar; her shift now ended, she lay claim to a table affording a view of the river of pedestrians filling the Rue Norvins, the evening flood tide heralded by the army of allumeurs chasing the darkness from the narrow streets of Montmartre.

“I have been invited… Wonderful news from my family in America… my dream… our life can grow together,” the young woman, unaware her heart contributed a whispered harmony to the words, ignored the curious but benign glances of the other patrons, as she rehearsed in her mind the contents of the telegram she’d carried throughout the day from her morning cleaning job at the Théâtre du Vaudeville, into the afternoon spent serving tables.

Nick Létranger, who laughed when referred to as a bronze hoplite of a young man, was monolithic when still, a contradiction when in motion; seeing Angelique, he moved through the crowded café, veering breath-close past stationary obstacles, the mobile diners becoming silent dance partners, found himself standing uncharacteristically mute before the girl, breath chased away not by exertion, rather, love.

Angelique’s hair was a cheerfully uncomplicated blonde, inclined to take the sunlight hostage during the daytime; at night, in the light of a thousand poor relatives of the sun, it was in it’s glory, golden highlights and diamond-white reflections played in the flickering gaslight, a transformation both of mind and body.

“I’ve been invited to join a party of distant relatives, they are emigrating to America,” despite the storm that, billowing in her friend’s eyes and felt like sleet on a morning face, Angelique pushed on, opposing emotions a call to arms, “What I’ve often dreamt of is becoming a granted wish, surely a dream come true can be nothing but wonderful?”

The thunder he felt growing, retreated at the sight of the woman who Nick described in a diary, (which was from all, even his brother back home, a secret), as ‘his broken caryatid’, reached out to touch her face, “It’s decided then, we’ll go together to the New World”.