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

“…no, I was talking to the Texas School Book Depository Building behind you!”

Friend of the Doctrine, Misky asked a question (ok, implied a question) in her comment yesterday that is very helpful to us to remember to ‘stay on message’.

“It’s possible that I wake up a Clark, and by 10am I’ve shed that disguise, and I’m a proper Scott.”

Well, actually, no. It’s not possible to ‘wake up a clark‘.

It is not possible to wake up in any personality type other than one’s predominant worldview, i.e. a clark (Outsider) a scott (Predator) or a roger (Herd Member).

But, as is so often the case with Comments from Readers, Misky’s comment offers us an opportunity to re-calibrate our messaging, or, to be a little more forgiving, to check the tuning on our instrument as, with any instrument. With use comes the risk of getting off pitch.

In the very earliest days, the primary foundational perspective employed in describing and explaining and instructioning New Readers on the Wakefield Doctrine was the concept of ‘personal reality’.

This concept of ‘personal reality’, in no way original to this blog, maintains that the world you experience today is subtly/outrageously different from the world as experienced by your: spouse/ex-lover/girl-with-too-much-metal-in-her-face-at-the-gas-station/your third grade teacher/the doctor who insist you come to his/her office to discuss recent test results… and we mean different. Not flying toasters or magic-waving-of-hands (ok, maybe with the ex-lover), just personal. The facts of the world remain in common. Nothing weird.

…now that you bring up ‘weird’. What we focused on in the early days of this blog was that the reality we found ourselfs in at the earliest of ages were one of three characteristic realities. That of the Outsider, the Predator, the Herd Member. What has been left behind in our approach to explaining this here Doctrine here is that these (three) personal realities are…real.

We did not open our eyes on the world (as chiluns) and make a decision (pre-ordained or otherwise) to act like an Outsider, like a clark. The reality (personal, remember?) was such that we were an Outsider. Our role/part/existence was as an individual who the world regarded as an Outsider.

We only realized it. We did not decide to be one.

That’s why we manifest one and only one predominant worldview. And not switching.

Our querent/correspondent, Misky, lives in a (personal) reality of (self-reported. Always self-reported. First Rule of the Wakefield Doctrine and all) the Predator. (Lions and tigers and bears!! And, slow rodential animals).

It was in order to survive this personal reality that she developed the traits and attitudes, social strategies and such others witness.

We look at ourselfs and our behavior* and think: “Ok, guess I’m a clark” or “Hey! I’m a scott” or even, “Allowing that some people might agree, for the sake of this discussion, I will agree to be a roger. For now.”

Hope this helps.

Even if it doesn’t, the reason Readers come to this blog is that, for some people, it is fun (here and elsewhere) to trick our intellect into arm-wrestling with our imagination.

*our behavior. that is the reason for our peculiar wording: ‘understand how we relate ourselves to the world around us and the people who make it’ The ‘relate ourselfs is the catch’. The whole know thyself thing.