clarkscottroger | the Wakefield Doctrine

Re-Print Tuesday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

January 24, 2023 By clarkscottroger

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

Increasing frequency of writing. A good thing. (What appears counter-intuitive, at least at a surface level.)

Whatever.

The Wakefield Doctrine is a perspective on the world around us and the people who make it up. We are, all of us, born with the potential to relate ourselves to the world in three ways:

as an Outsider(clark)
as the Predator(scotts)
as a Member of a Herd(rogers)

At an early age we settle into one, (and only one), relationship and begin to learn, be taught, practice and develop ways to survive and live, get by and thrive, in the world as we experience it. While this is only one of three ways of relating ourselves, we retain the potential to see the world as ‘the other two’ might experience it. This is the second benefit of learning the principles of this here personality theory here.

Read what you find interesting among the posts. Indulge your clarklike secondary aspect and enjoy the fun of ‘what if’.

With practice and reflection, study and …practice, you will enhance your ability to see the world as the other person is experiencing it. And you will begin to see the clarks, scotts and rogers in your world. (Warning: Once you see the clarks, scotts and rogers in your world, you may stop being able to not see the clarks, scotts and rogers in your world.)

That said, by appreciating the unique cost (and benefit) of how you relate yourself to the world around you, you’ll also be in a position to see how the other person is experiencing, putting you in a position to know more about them than they know about themselves.

Pro Tip: Recommended technique for determining the personality type of the people around you? With a solid understanding of the primary behaviors associated with the Outsider(clarks) Predator(scotts) and Herd Members(rogers) and the subject in sight, throw out the ‘no fricken way!’ of the three. Then, (and this is both the most difficult and rewarding aspect of this thing of ours), imagine how they’re experiencing what’s going on from one (of the two remaining) perspectives. Then, from the remaining perspective. Just like your last trip to the optimist for your eye test: does the world make more sense from the perspective of (clark*scott*roger)? or (click) from the perspective of (clark*scott*roger). Repeat. Eventually one view will stand out as the ‘clearest’ the most sensible. That’s the person’s predominant worldview (aka personality type)

Hats and Understanding: the 3 personality types of the Wakefield Doctrine

July 6, 2011

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

For whatever reasons we are getting a lot of new Readers and Visitors in the last couple of weeks, so lets review the basic principles of the Wakefield Doctrine.

The Wakefield Doctrine, also known as the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers is a useful, unique and fun way to look at the behavior of the people in our lives. Everyone reading this has had at least one moment that they thought, “now why on earth would they go and act like that? I really thought I knew them better.”
Whether a spouse or a friend, a co-worker or a fellow student, there will always be someone in our lives whose behavior makes us wish we could ‘see inside their head’. And as everyone reading this knows, there is a near endless supply of books and blogs and DVDs that promises to provide you with ‘guides to understanding your spouse’, “do you really understand your lover?’ and ‘theories of personality and self-improvement’.

The Wakefield Doctrine is not quite any of those things. In fact, the Wakefield Doctrine is not like anything you have encountered before in your search for understanding others. And make no mistake about it, you have been searching for a way to better understand the people in your life, whether you are consciously aware of it or not. This is true because everyone wants to be happy and even if you think that simply knowing:

what to say to that girl you are too shy to talk to, or

learning how to make your husband stop talking for 5 minutes or

trying to prepare yourself for a successful Job Interview

what you think/hope/know you need to learn is: how to understand another person.

Well, good news! The Wakefield Doctrine is a tool, a method, an approach…a theory that will let you ‘get inside the head of the other person’. And the best part? It can be understood by almost everyone and can be effectively used (by almost everyone) real damn quick. All that it takes is a little flexible intelligence. What we mean by this is that while you do have to be pretty bright, the critical quality you need is to be willing to believe something ‘just because’.
Ready?

The Wakefield Doctrine says that we all see the world in a certain context; not just that you have likes and dislikes, or interests and attitudes, but that the world for you has (some) very basic rules. Further, (the Wakefield Doctrine says) we all are born with the potential to see the world in one of three characteristic ways ( the context,we just mentioned). At an early age we (somehow) decide on one of three worldviews and we become clarks or scotts or rogers. These are the 3 personality types mentioned in the title.
But they are not really personality types though, are they? (All the other personality theories) talk about interests and drives and attitudes, they give you tests to see what you are most like, what pattern you resemble, where you fit in their matrix.
The Doctrine is different. We say, ‘Hey! you are a clark or a scott or a roger. We know what the world looks like from inside your head. How about that!’

Sound like fun? Well, it is. And it is useful. You will know why the other person acts the way that they do and, as frickin huge bonus, you will know why it is you act the way that you do! If you want, you can learn to do things that were never even close to being possible, all because of the understanding that the Wakefield Doctrine offers.

OK, ok enough! This was supposed to be a brief Summer Post! But just to make your introduction to the Wakefield Doctrine fun and enjoyable, look over at the Table of Contents, there are Pages listed that talk about each of the three personality types, how to identify them, that sort of thing. And these Posts, they are sort of ‘a conversation’ about the Doctrine; read them in order or at random, should not really matter.

Final Tip: you have all three ‘personality types’ within you. You are predominately one, but the other two are alwaysthere. So if you read this blog, at some point you will say to yourself, ‘What the hell? Sometimes I am a roger, but then there are times when I must be what they call a scott!‘

Final, final Tip: this theory of clarks, scotts and rogers is gender and culture neutral. (If you need that explained to you then you probably need to wait (for one of us) to write ‘the Wakefield Doctrine For Dummies’.

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

Re-Print Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

January 16, 2023 By clarkscottroger

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

So the second coolest thing* happened the other day at the office. Initiating a conversation, an associate texted: what a roger!

I smiled and my pride in being the curator of our little personality theory increased just a bit.

(Full Disclosure: being a clark, I immediately chastised myself for the indulging in pride. Not as in the somewhat more famous religion’s admonition against such self-assessment, more in the ‘keep your feelings to yourself, nothing good could otherwise result’.)

Holy smoke! Being a holiday and all, let’s get all zen koan and say: the preceding post is sufficient for a talented Reader (and student of the human condition) to reconstruct the Wakefield Doctrine.

* first coolest thing? While it has not, to the best of our knowledge, yet happened, would be a person, with whom we have not had any contact, to say the above in our presence.

…ok, we admit it, feeling some guilt about hitting publish on a 180 word post.

… no! now wait just a darn minute!

I (re)-read the following, while scanning old posts for reprint:

The Wakefield Doctrine is for you, not them.

damn! those words, they are correct!

When I engage the world through the lens of the Doctrine, it does not change me. And…. and! it does not change you.

What it does is make available to us an additional perspective on what is going on at this particular moment. Therefore, if our desire is to best relate ourself to the world around us, appreciating how you are experiencing the world is helpful. Doesn’t change you. But our relationship to you, at least in this particular interaction, will surely be different for accepting this understanding of you.

so, maybe it does change us.

but!! The use of the perspective afforded by the Wakefield Doctrine will do nothing, at least directly, to affect the other person. However, not only will we have added to our world by better understanding you, we will be altered. Since the Wakefield Doctrine maintains that while living in one, and only one predominant worldview (aka personality type), we are still possessed of the capacity to experience the world as do the other two, this acceptance moves us a tiny step forward to being the most we can be as people.

cool

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: clarkscottroger, predicting human behavior, psychology of personality, the Wakefield Doctrine

RePrint Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

December 19, 2022 By clarkscottroger

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

Well, seeing how we’re in the midst of…(ok, we did one of more than eight pages) updating the static content of this here blog here*.

Being heavily into the Six Sentence Story and coming across and early one, what say we post that as a reprint so we can get back to the updating work. Really want to get as much done as possible before the up-coming ‘New’ year.

Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine- (what the?!)

May 18, 2017 Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

Six Sentence Story

Bloghop. Simple theme: story writing. Requirements equally simple: six sentences in length. exactly six. (as opposed to 7 or 8) zoe provides a prompt word that must be involved with your story. Notice I did not say ‘used in’, ‘a part of’, or ‘central to’? All that’s needed is an involvement, (that is apparent to the reader, of course.) or not… all depends. lol

‘CUE’

” I must not, I cannot!” shrugging off the Harris tweed coat, Vlad Scripturam, let it fall to floor, leather elbow patches creating suede block quotes, “We’re mere narrative elements in a writing exercise.”

“So you say,” with the wanton disregard of the other-worldly beauty of her flawless skin, Elise managed to arch a perfect eyebrow at the edge of her furrowed brow, “but only one of us, if my understanding of rhetoric is correct, is the protagonist. I will take care of us, mein liebchen.”

“But, mon cherie, no less an authority than the Chicago Manual of Style would beg to differ, citing both ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘Lethal Weapon’,” Vlad stepped back from the chaise lounge, looming tall and erect over the woman’s confidently relaxed posture.

“You are concerning yourself far too much with mere details, relax and allow me to cue the love scene,” Elise’s smile, comprised of a thousand invisible fishhooks, tore at Vlad’s flesh, radiating pleasure throughout his body; who among us, having never been a fish can say that the sea creature, feeling itself drawn upwards, out of its natural element, towards no less a probative heaven than that which fills the myths of mankind, is not in a state of bliss.

Vlad (‘the Rhetorician’) Scripturam allowed himself to be drawn closer.

* have updated and revamped the ‘About’ page. Working on the middle-center column of the ‘landing page’: ‘What is the Wakefield Doctrine’
Full Disclosure: thought we could find, in a previously-written post, a more updated definition of the Doctrine, suitable for new Readers… but no luck. Guess we’ll need to write a ‘new’ one. Actually, there have been developments, both stylistic (use of the editorial ‘we’) and accurate to our understanding of this best of all personality theories, such as ‘the Everything Rule’. So, write we will.

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: clarkscottroger, psychology of personality, the Wakefield Doctrine

RePrint Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

December 5, 2022 By clarkscottroger

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

Let’s get right to the reprint, shall we?

“…where the sun is silent” (l sol race) the Wakefield Doctrine (yeah, Dante in the morning….what’s not to like?)

November 3, 2013

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

(A Monday Post in 2 Parts)

Part 1

Struggling with the book. Getting tangled up in the effort to present simple factual information without (it) strangling on footnotes, ibids and op.cits. Everything seems to come across fairly straight-forwardly in a blog Post, but when I try to write ‘the Chapter: rogers’, I stare at the screen for hours! I suspect that I’m over-thinking it (yeah, I know… no way I’d do that!).
Anyway, I got up early this morning and, at some point, the though came to me, ‘hey! weren’t there 2 new Readers who recently left Comments? They seemed to like the idea of the Doctrine but (also) seemed to not quite get what we do here… why dontcha explain the Wakefield Doctrine to them in a single Post!‘

Michelle ( Rubber Shoes in Hell ) wrote: ‘This is fascinating…‘ (and) Kathy ( SMARTLiving365.com ) wrote: ‘ you should be awarded the Noble Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the 2014 VMA for this blog* …I’m still just tying to figure out what in the heck you mean by “the doctrine.”

so… new Readers? try this:

The Wakefield Doctrine is a way of (re) framing the question we so often finding ourselves asking, ‘now why on earth would they go and say a thing like that? I really thought I knew them better!‘

The Wakefield Doctrine is, at it’s heart, a question, not an answer. The question that the Wakefield Doctrine would have us ask is: ‘how is that person relating themselves to the world around them?’ Note the wording of our question. We do not ask ‘how is that person relating to the world‘, we are focused on how they relate themselves to the world. This is, in part, because the Wakefield Doctrine maintains that there are three ways to relate oneself to the world, as the Outsider(clarks), the Predator(scotts) or as the Herd Member(rogers). Actually, the Wakefield Doctrine goes way beyond this simple three perspectives approach. The Doctrine is predicated on the idea that that we experience life on a personal level, what we refer to as worldviews and it is the worldview that we grow up and develop in that accounts for our ‘personality type’. For the Wakefield Doctrine, a person does not get born with (or be given by parents, family and caregivers) a personality type. Rather we say, ‘we are all born with the capability to deal with any of the three worldviews and at a very early age we settle into one of them. What others may call a ‘personality type’, we recognize as the coping skills, social strategies and style of interacting with others, that is appropriate to the reality we are living in… we become a clark or scott or roger.’ By the way, while we never lose the capacity of ‘the other two worldviews’, our reality is always just one of the three (predominant worldviews).

The rest (of the Wakefield Doctrine) is just plain fun. Learning the characteristics of the three worldviews helps us correctly infer ‘how the person is relating themselves to the world around them’.

(Clearly this ‘lets explain the Doctrine in half a Post’ is not gonna work… but, it’s helpful to me to try and organize the information necessary to (the) understanding of our little personality theory. … yeah! bullet points! who the hell doesn’t love bullet points? (bullet points motto: ‘because we don’t have grammar, we seem so much more understandable!’):

the reason we learn the characteristics of the 3 worldviews is to help us recognize a person’s worldview… we do not, I repeat, do not assign categories, types or any other designation that implies ‘you are now this personality type’, on the basis of observed behavior… (quick tip: observe the person, eliminate the dominant worldview that there’s no frickin way they could be a (clark or scott or roger)…continue to observe …make the call

you can’t get it wrong and you can’t break it…. a person relates themselves to the world around them (in a certain characteristic way), you are not deciding anything other than which (of the three worldviews) appears to be most consistent with their behavior

the Wakefield Doctrine is for you, not them

‘everyone does everything, at one time or another’

the goal of the Wakefield Doctrine is to help us to see the world as the other person is experiencing it

Part 2

‘rogers are mean, scotts are cruel and clarks are heartless’

This is a perfect illustration of the ‘everyone does everything at one time or another Rule’
We start with the premise: one chooses to be unkind to another, how does this manifest in the three worldviews? (I could simply say, ‘why are clarks heartless and scotts cruel and rogers mean, rather than say, clarks are cruel and rogers are heartless?)

‘rogers are mean’ because when they want to negatively affect someone, they do it within the context of the Herd. They will gossip and talk among each other about the target (of this negativity). They will never go up to the target (person) and say ‘you are such a slut’. Instead, they will say to each other, ’isn’t she such a slut’? It will be the group opinion that will constitute the negative effect. In other words, if an outsider comes on the scene and needs information regarding this person, the herd will make a point of offering an opinion.
(Now class, why is that so rogerian?)
(God, I so love to lecture)

The answer is, of course, because the effort to affect a non-herd member is always manifested among and within the Herd. No single member (of the Herd) could, or would approach the ’target person’ directly and certainlywould not say anything to their face. (Much more likely would be the situation where one (of the rogers) would get the person in private and explain that, being their friend, they wanted to let them know that ‘everyone thinks you’re a slut’, (with the implication that, perhaps they did not agree with everyone).

All right, then how about scotts? Why cruel instead of heartless or mean?
Because it is the nature of predators, to act alone. Granted scotts will gather in packs when the occasion rises, but for the most part, they act/hunt alone. And when a scott is being ‘negative’ it is expressed in a manner that can only be called cruelty. Part of this is the result of the fact that scotts will act directly, but impersonally. They enjoy the efforts of the prey to resist, (hey that squirming and trying to get away is totally a part of the whole hunting experience. But! its nothing personal, the scott is hungry and the prey is food. So in the case of scotts, while this may appear to be cruelty, it’s simply the ‘way of nature’.

Clarks? Heartless? No! Say it ain’t so!! If any Reader needs it explained, then you need to read the content in these Pages a bit more.

* the first half of the quote is a re-enactment, dramatization and slight paraphrasing of what a Kathy-like blogger may have been feeling as she began to type her Comment, everything after ‘VMA for this blog’ is what Kathy of SMARTLiving actually wrote in her Comment.

*

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: clarkscottroger, the Wakefield Doctrine

RePrint Monday RePrint -the Wakefield Doctrine-

November 28, 2022 By clarkscottroger

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

Mark your calendars! Only twenty-five days ’til Summer!

On with the reprint!

(In case we can’t find anything RePrint-worthy, on this weekend’s Guys² & G¹ Livestream we did discuss… )

We interrupt this genuinely sincere attempt to bring the most wonderful of perspectives on the world around us, (and the people who make it up), with the following ‘first-time-with-your-parents-car-driving-with-your-high-school-friends-at-night feeling kinda post.

Full Disclosure: we haven’t bothered to read it in it’s entirety. But, seeing how we hit Publish once already, back when this blog was new(ish), we’ll take a leap of faith and post it without reading.

Hey! Alert Reader Dinise (owner and proprietorini of the fabulous Six Sentence Story blog hop just signaled of a major misspelling. All set. (If you’re one of them what pulled up the post before we corrected, hold onto the Post!! It’ll be worth something, someday.

(BONUS Post-ette included today!!) the Wakefield Doctrine “1st Annual Black Friday Video Chat…Tonight! at 7*”

November 28, 2013

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

Hey! ~~Tomorrow~~ Friday Tonight as in later in the same day as you are reading this here correction in….from (unless, of course, you forget and don’t read this Post until tomorrow, the forget about it) ….November 29th ( 29-Nov-13 to our International Friends) at 7:00 pm* First Annual Black Friday Video and X-rated Movie Festival!!BONUS new material!***

Speaking of contributions from Downsprings, had an interesting and challenging discussion with Phyllis the other morning regarding rogers. For some distantly related reason Phyllis said that ‘rogers are mean’. Out of the context in which this sentence was made, this statement, ‘rogersare mean’ demanded consideration. For if a statement is true about one form, what does it tell us about the other two forms? So from that Phyllis’ single statement we jumped to the following:

rogers are mean, scotts are cruel and clarks are heartless

So, lets consider these statements.
We start with the premise, i.e. when one (of us) chooses to be unkind to another, what is the characteristic of the behavior relative to our type. (Or may I could just say, why are clarks heartless and scotts cruel and rogersmean, instead of say, clarks are cruel and rogers are heartless etc) ( Update: The current preferred way of expressing this: how do each of the three ‘manifest’ the state of ‘to negatively affect another’ This is a result of the understanding that ‘everyone does everything at one time or another’. )

‘Rogers are mean’ because when they want to negatively affect someone, they do it within the context of the herd. They will gossip and talk among each other about the target (of this negativity). They will never go up to the target(person) and say ‘you are a slut’. Instead they will say to each other, ’isn’t she such a slut’? It will be the group opinion that will constitute the negative effect. In other words, if an outsider comes on the scene and and needs information reagrding this person, the herd will make a point of offering an opinion. ( as in: “hey, clark! because I’m your friend and no one will say this, I think I owe it to tell you that everyone thinks you’re a slut. Not that I agree with them, but I am your friend” ) Updated 11.29.13
(Now class, why is that so rogerian?)
(God, I so love to lecture)

The answer is, of course, because the effort to affect a non-herd member is always done among and within the herd. No single member (of the herd) could or would approach the ’target person’ directly and certainly would not say anything to their face.

All right, then how about scotts? Why cruel instead of heartless or mean?
Because it is the nature of predators, to act alone. Granted scotts will gather in packs when the occasion rises, but for the most part they hunt alone. And when a scott is being ‘negative’ it is expressed in a manner that can only be called cruelty. Part of this is the result of the fact that scotts will act directly but impersonally. They enjoy the efforts of the prey to resist, hey that squirming and trying to get away is the damn relish. But its nothing personal, the scott is hungry and the prey is food. So in the case of scotts, this cruelty is the ‘way of nature’ cruelty.

Clarks? Heartless? No! Say it ain’t so!! If any Reader needs it explained, then you need to read the content in these Pages a bit more.

So leave a Comment let everyone know if you are intending to join us tomorrow… you may regret your rash decision, but hey, that’s what the Wakefield Doctrine blog is for!!

(I’ll be back in the course of the day today, will have more details and and insights and outrageous assertions as, I trust you have all come to expect from everyone’s new favorite Doctrine, the Wakefield Doctrine continues it’s coverage of this first of ‘the Big Three Holidays)

(back) So what do you have to look forward to from the Wakefield Doctrine this Joyous Winter Season? more scott and more roger! you do recall that the Doctrine holds that we all have (the potential) inherent in all three worldviews, don’t you? and you remember what we said about using the Wakefield Doctrine as a tool for self-development, right? (i.e. ‘simple as can be, harder than anything you have ever tried to do’…that) Well that’s what we are going to be spending your valuable blog-reading time over the next 6 weeks or so. Plan accordingly.

(back) I know that I write every year about parades… (rogerian essential) but my god!! where the hell is Child Protection services? those poor children… 3 hours walking the streets of New York City , in 30 degree windy temperature all for 5 seconds ‘in frame’ in front of Macy’s so the folks back in Indiana can say ‘look!! it’s Tracy!!! what the hell’s the matter with her face?’
On a personal note: the over-hormoned 23 year old inside of me died a little late this morning as I sat in stunned disbelief as Joan Jett stood, singing, on a frickin float…. not a cigarette or ‘record machine’ in sight…waving at the crowds with a blank look on her still very attractive face…

(

back) (…again!) that ‘cover photo? the one with the Delegates from Slovenia? that goes back to the early days of this blog. we had a thing about Slovenians!! (a good thing, nothing bad…just a fun kinda affectation.) will tell you more in a little bit

* For the time-zone impaired:

Jak!! yo!!! that means 6:00 pm Twin City time

Stephanie? I believe you will have to stay up kind of late… this being like 2:00 am (!) in your time…. well, there’s always the Sunday Video Brunch (which is 3:30 pm local i.e. your local )

Molly? yeah… I know we’ll need to co-odrdinate on the google circle thing, but these Video chats are kinda fun… for you it would be 5:00 pm stop in while fixing dinner…if your phone can handle google hangouts

Michelle? wakey wakey!! 8:00 yo

Lizzi? it’s a Friday night! you get to stay up late ( sorry if we appear to be assuming that you would have nothing more…. exotic…exciting? better to do on a Friday night! 12 Midnight!

Melanie a late night rendavouz with what I trust is the oddest group of people you know

Christine… you know that we totally would love to have you join us…but it will be either 6 or 7 pm your time, so I suspect that you’ll be in the middle of dishes and homework and such… but if you do get a chance…on your phone come hangout with us!

Kristi oh Kristi! come out and plaaay

Richard oh Richard…. lol you know it would be fun

** ‘cept for Zoe… she has a very rare, ‘Join in late Card’ a privilege enjoyed by few, so step carefully when you join the brunch! lol

*** well, ‘new’ in the sense that if you were born anytime after, say… I don’t know 2011?? then this is totally new and original!! hey, it’s a great insight from a DownSpring so ya better appreciate it …you know how hard it is to get a roger to say anything that amounts to more than ‘I told you so…’??! I didn’t think so…. so read and comment, already.