Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Why don’t we hold that thought this early Monday morning, for surely we’ve done the above variation-on-a-day-of-the-week post title before,
But that’s not important now.
What is important is finding an old post that will jumpstart our head as we close out the Month (November-in-Oceania motto: ‘Hey man, sorry to hear about you and your old lady. Sure, you can crash here for while. At least until you can get back on your feet.)
The basics still apply. The Wakefield Doctrine is an alternate perspective on the world around us and the people who make it up. As such, it offers both a tool for self-improvement and a diversion capable of providing amusement, if not outright fun.
You know how, at least as offered in the popular science press, the Holy Grail of theoretical physics is the reconciliation of quantum mechanics and general relativity? A Grand Unified Theory of Everything? The Doctrine is in a similar space. For us it is the bridging of ‘personal reality’ and ‘character of (our) relationship with the world around us and the people who make it up (aka PR vs CORwTWRUatPWMiU).
When we started writing this blog, the concept of ‘personal reality’ was the most accessible and it conveyed the ‘inevitability’ of the characteristic behavior of the three predominant worldviews (clarks/Outsiders, scotts/Predators and rogers/Herd Members). This was important because the Wakefield Doctrine is predicated on the notion that how we act (and react) is as much personal whim/outrageous fortune/vindictive calculation as many of the other, more popular personality theories would have you believe. (We once observed, early in these pages, that the many theories of personalty, at least the type that lend themselves to public domain images and popular song lyrics, are basically, ‘mirror-shaped clubs’. “Oh, honey! Come take this online survey about what kind of person you are. They have you down to a ‘T’!”
While still useful, the personal reality model, has been augmented by the relationship theory (‘how we relate ourselfs to the world around and the people who make it up’). This latter view allows some Readers to hurdle the imagination threshold.
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Non-allegorical Monday* the Wakefield Doctrine ( it’s so simple, even your spouse could get it**)
March 4, 2013Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
The Wakefield Doctrine is a way to understand the behavior of people. It is a perspective that allows you to know more about the other person than they know about themselves. It is a tool with which you can overcome bad habits and self-defeating behavior. And it, (this Wakefield Doctrine), is fun. Simple to understand for those people with innate curiosity and intellectual confidence, the Wakefield Doctrine lets you see the world from a different angle, an angle from which personality types are discernible without the need to ask questions, get the other person to fill out a survey and totally without the need to employ any math involving chi square distribution or standard deviations.
The Wakefield Doctrine maintains that all people are born with the potential to relate themselves to the world in one of three characteristic ways, as an Outsider (clarks), as a Predator (scotts) or as a Member of the Herd (rogers). It is (the Wakefield Doctrine maintains) the character of this relationship that produces what is commonly referred to as personality or personality type. This is not overly unique in the world of personality theories. What is unique, is that the Wakefield Doctrine insists that not only do people relate themselves to the world in these three characteristic ways, but the world for them does, in fact, reflect the qualities implied by the relationship.
Plainly put, we live in what can only be described as a personal reality. This is not to imply anything overly mystical, magical or fantastic. Trees do not talk (unless we are willing to listen), prey do not yearn to be brought down (unless we abandon our reason) and the world is not quantifiable nor is it governed by Rules that we alone are able to appreciate (unless we are rogers).
This aspect of the Wakefield Doctrine that includes the existence or personal realities is the difficult part for approximately 2/3s of the people who come across this blog. They, (these 2/3s), are not able to imagine (for the sake of experiment) that everyone they know is experiencing a reality that is different (this difference ranging from barely noticeable to oh-my-god) from what they believe is the only real reality. They might try to understand the principles of the Wakefield Doctrine (very likely to succeed) and they might even persist in trying to identify people by their personality types (many of them get it, sort of) but they rarely ever get to experience the primary benefit of this approach to understanding the people in their lives. They never get it enough to understand that everyone they encounter in the course of the day (today!) is acting in an entirely appropriate manner, consistent with the world as they are experiencing it.
(We call these personal realities, ‘worldviews’ ).Well this blog is simply not for them.
It is for you.
(I mean, seriously, if you have read this far into this Post, then I will say, without fear of contradiction, that you have the qualities that are required to find this thing useful and fun. And if you have any question about that happening, write a Comment and your specific question will be answered.)
The three personal realities are referred to as:
- clarks (the Outsider)…the most likely to immediately understand the Wakefield Doctrine and the most likely to be willing to learn about and the one (of the three) who will benefit the most
- scotts (the Predator)… the third most likely to understand the Wakefield Doctrine and the most likely to see the immediate benefits (lets call that the ‘advantages’ for this personality type)
- rogers (the Member of the Herd)… the second most likely to understand the principles of the Wakefield Doctrine and the most likely to pretend to employ the tools for themselves
Well, that wraps up ‘non-allegorical’ Monday.
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About clarkscottroger
Some specialists in family dynamics will tell you every child in a family is raised by different parents. The oarents perceive each child differently and act toward the child based on it, and every child perceives the parents differently.
Of course, this just means reality and how we perceive it is personal.
and they laughed at the Doctrine!*
*actually, no one has ever laughed at the Doctrine. At least not in a mean fashion. Plenty of us laugh at the ridiculous and unaccountable efficacy of the Doctrine in predicting behavior. Of course, it could be the small(ish) numbers of people who have encountered our little personality theory. But still, there’s something about this thing of ours that allows us to relate ourselfs to the world differently, on the topic of this thing.