relationships | the Wakefield Doctrine

Wednesday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

May 13, 2026 By clarkscottroger 7 Comments

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

Regular Readers know that, of recent, we’ve divided up the week into posts by subject (or perhaps, more properly, of arenae of special interest): Monday through Wednesday the principles, application and good practice of the Wakefield Doctrine as an additional perspective on the world around us (and the people who make it up); Thursday (with option on Friday) Six Sentence Story(s); Friday open topic and Saturday the TToT.

(well, that certainly qualifies as ‘stem-winding’ although, if truth be told, a liberal application of italics would be in order. The history of the phrase is…)

Wait. A. Minute.

The history of the phrase, or, more properly the inference from the process of researching the etymology of it, is a good example of the differences between the three predominant worldviews!

attend:

Having spent twenty minutes on the internet looking up and otherwise trying to learn the origin of the phrase ‘stem-winding’ (or, ‘stemwinding’):

clarks (the Outsider) would ‘feel good’ in the acquistion of a new and hopefully accuate understanding of the phrase; the rub being: it does not quite conform to their understanding (of the phrase) prior to their inquiry; lets be charitable and simply do (on movies it’s kind of a trope to have a block-lettered stop appear, for us lets go with ‘CONFIRMATION BIAS’ lol*
scotts (the Predator)
rogers (the Herd Member)

jeez Louise! sometimes being gifted with insatiable curioisty is not such a good thing.

We went in search of an image of a Patek Phillip watch, (’cause they had a hand (arr arr) in the genesis of the expression ‘stemwinder’ and that lead to reading about the most expensive watches sold at auction and that, naturally lead to reading up on Duchenne muscular dystrophy which produced a side-trip of blessedly short duration to inquire about Gower’s sign and, finally back here.

damn! still gots to complete the one part of this terminally-prolonged post that relates to the Wakefield Doctrine (hint: bullet points)

*our confirmation bias in this case is a memory of the use of the phrase. it was in a description of an old-time politician standing behind a podium before a crowd and deliberately, if not ostentatiously, taking out a pocket watch and making a show of winding it, the effect on the crowd is the realization that the speech would go on and on**

** who just said, “So, you were right about the phrase!!”***

*** ha ha

the least we can do is post some engaging, if not dated, music¹

1) you’re really thinking ‘I wonder what the link from this post to the choice of music is?? Click away, just click away and we can stop typing lol

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: relationships, the Wakefield Doctrine, three personality types, Understanding Human Behavior

Tuesday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

May 12, 2026 By clarkscottroger 6 Comments

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

the ‘reality morphology’ that is threatening to rogers, amusing to scotts and useful (bordering on essential) to clarks

any questions?

~yes, the Wakefield Doctrine can anticipate a new Reader’s reaction/response at a distance

~no, there is no proof necessary to support this assertion

~well, because the unavoidable conclusion as to the Reader/User side of appreciating the utility, value and fun inherent in the perspective of the Doctrine makes that moot

~the Wakefield Doctrine is predicated on the relationship of the person with/to the world around them

~no, we agree, few things in the world are more personal than a ‘relationship’

~sure, physics, mechanics and (some) medicine…roger

~ we will, thank you for your approval and permission!

~as the end product resulting from the employ of the perspective(s) of the Wakefield Doctrine involves a subjective relationship, i.e. ‘she is a scott, I am a roger… ain’t a snowball’s chance of gaining control’

~… on one level, of course, being adults we have come to learn that in all relationships that include a dominant/submissive dynamic…ain’t one without the other

~sure

~the ambition of the Wakefield Doctrine is to allow us to be in a position to improve ‘how we relate ourselves to the world around us and the people who make it up’

~that italicized section, the ‘relate ourselves’?

~that’s the hard part, that’s what leaves 2/3s of Readers behind with a ‘yeah, it was weird, but fun, kinda made sense but… you know, incomplete, ya know?’

~we do

~if you’re to indulge in knowing more about ‘the other person’ in your life than they know about themselves, a list of characteristics that designaties their ‘personality type’ is a party trick, suitable for amusing friends and beating up on a significant other, aka a ‘mirror-shaped club’

~if you have the hubris to believe you can appreciate the personal reality of a total stranger, then you gots to be willing to get some skin in the game (for our scottian Readers, articles of clothing in a game of strip poker)

~ unlike the ‘real’ personality theories like the Oscar-Mayer Alphabet personality type (motto: ‘they’re only capital letters!! a) easy to apply and 2) what harm can it do you?‘) the Wakefield Doctrine posits three relationships one might maintain with the world around them

~come on, you’re better than that

~shed enough of the ego to allow that we all have parts of our selfs that fight against becoming more

~the Wakefield Doctrine is one (of a multitude) of the tools that make that (more) possible

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: clarkscottroger, humor, personality types, relationships, the Wakefield Doctrine, Understanding Human Behavior

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

May 9, 2026 By clarkscottroger 8 Comments

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

This is the Doctrine’s weakly* contribution to the Lizzi R’s Ten Things of Thankful (TToT) bloghop.

The following are (the) people, places, things and events that have, in the course of the last week, elicited a feeling (or reasonable facsimile) of gratitude.

1) Phyllis

2) Una

3) the Wakefield Doctrine

4) knowing that there are Hostinae, Hosts or Readers who can identify the plant thing in this photo:

5) Six Sentence Story bloghop

6) in search of yard projects…

7) hypo-grat: the subzero daytime temperatures is holding back the insect both ‘flying’ and ‘wtf?!! is that??!!’ population. ProTip: We need glasses for reading and while the lenses keep getting thicker with each visit to the optomist, the salutary consequence of leaving them in the house when we venture forth into the woods, totally increases.

8) something, something

9) Frontlawn Meadow Update:

10) Secret Rule 1.3

* no, we never do tire of that ‘joke’

music

* Thanks and shout-out to Keith for inspiring the inclusion of this tuneage

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

Tuesday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

May 5, 2026 By clarkscottroger 2 Comments

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

Here’s a topic we used to focus on far more frequently than presently.

Prompted by, as we are grateful for Reader Comments: Mimi and Misky respectively:

“’As we experience it.’ Often the main point.”

“Aye. A good post: All reality is lived personally — but not all of it is shared.

Lets check the anchovies, see if’n we can get some further input.

ἡμέρα Ἄρεως -the Wakefield Doctrine- (‘the day of the week most favored by clarks’)

August 1, 2017

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

So why is it that, of the three personality types, clarks look upon Tuesday as, perhaps, the best of all days of the week? Simple. The weekend-workweek transition day (Monday) has been survived, the focus on achieved (or not) progress day (Wednesday) has not yet occurred and the deceptively desirable end-of-workweek day (Friday) is still a distant dream.

Tuesday is all about optimism and promise. And clarks, well, clarks are nothing if not the embodiment of promise.* No, in our brief discussion this morning, ‘promise’ is decidedly a noun. And the context is social context-free! It is not about breaking a promise, making a promise, promising to better. It (the promise of a clark) is the potential… for (totally fill in the blank).

If anything, the promise inherent in the worldview of a clark is the event horizon of their existence. whoah! (whoah, indeed!) Damn, as often happens, I’ve stumbled into a topic that, like a quiet talk and a cup of coffee at the kitchen counter, the coming day still held back by the castellation in bleached oak of the cabinets bracketing the sink, the outside wall falls into the yard and the world yaws open, ever hungry for human time.

lol

Cliff Notes version of my tantalizing allusion: “…the promise inherent in the worldview of a clark is the event horizon of their existence.” clarks are always searching for something. Being of a rational bent (clarks think, scotts act and rogers feel), the sought-after thing manifests as knowledge/information. clarks are the insatiably curious of the three. The ‘something’ clarks seek is the thing that everyone around them appear to know already and, by tragic miscalculation, clarks assume is the knowledge that makes them, (scotts and rogers) real people. They must have been absent that day, when growing up and being taught about life, ya know. In any event, that is the singularity, the conviction that if they acquire more information, they might discover the secret and become a part of. Like the nearly-all powerful black hole, we cannot see it directly and so are left with the edge of endless appetite, like golem with a question mark impressed upon our foreheads.

* the natural tendency here is to interpret the word ‘promise’ as a verb, which totally changes the spin. That kind of promise is strictly of the domain of the real people, the scotts and the rogers. (“Hey, a promise is a promise, so get some clothes on an we’ll catch some breakfast” “Yeah, but you promised. I heard you promise. Everyone heard you promise. How can you do such a thing?“)

sorry, got waylaid by the phrase ‘the event horizon of their existence‘

Mimi keyed on one of the linchpins of everyone’s favorite personality theories, ‘As we experience it’. This is an oft-repeated phrase and are intended to provide a gentle reminder that one reality does not (necessarily) fit all.

Misky’s coda is a commonsense addendum for those, (perhaps new Readers excited at the notion of personal realities), who might see the principles here as license to snoop.

Thank you both for a rather sophisticated prompt for a Tuesday Doctrine post.

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: relationships, the Wakefield Doctrine, Understanding Human Behavior

T’usdae -the Wakefield Doctrine-

April 28, 2026 By clarkscottroger 9 Comments

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

So, we were thinking (ikr?) how is it we wrote so much and frequently in the years past. And the short answer is: “Because, like any not-yet-mature-lifeform, anything can prompt/stimulate and otherwise offer an irresistible starting point for a Wakefield Doctrine post.

…

(we getting there)

…and the long answer?

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;

Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

(Sonnet 18. William Shakespeare)

Pretty simple, isn’t it?.

Well, thanks for coming by… hey, people keeping asking, what’s the standard by which we measure and/or identify the three predominant worldviews!??!

The characteristic worldviews are (that of):

the Outsider, you wake up each day knowing that the world is ‘out there’ and you are ‘here’, you are creative and funny and have an insatiable appetite to learn things, anything, for the joy of discovery and in the (secret) hope of learning the secret of how to be ‘a part of’ to not be the Outsider. This is the clark personality

the Predator, you wake up each morning hungry…physically, spiritually, socially, sexually. A scott, (this is the personality type that naturally results from living in the worldview of the Predator), is always on the move, always alert, aggressive, fun to be with, mercurial, loud, un-shy and outlandish. It is said of the scottian individual, “I scream, therefore I am”

the Member of the Herd, as a roger you are confident in the rightness of the world and constantly worried about sufficiently understanding the proper way to live, you are a social genius, you are a very encouraging listener and an inveterate gossip. You believe that Reality and the Universe is quantifiable and governed by Rules, your understanding of these Rules invests you with Power and Responsibility to everyone you encounter, rogers are responsible for Civilization and the Spanish Inquisition, the stability of governance and the Salem Witch Trials

Speaking of a Summer’s day…

Three things to remember:

how a person relates (themselves) to the world at large results in what we call a ‘worldview’ (which amounts to a ‘personal reality’)

everyone has the potential for relating to the world in one of the three characteristic ways and while everyone does settle into one ‘predominant’ worldview, the other two ways (of relating) remain available throughout life

clarks are the Outsiders (clarks think), scotts are the Predators (scotts act) and rogers are the Herd Members (rogers feel)

There. The Basics of the Wakefield Doctrine! Everything you need to know when you are looking (at) yourself.

Next: the Characteristics of the three worldviews.

clarks: the Outsider, view the world as would any rather intelligent, fairly resourceful, not so aggressive explorer would. The goal for most clarks is to learn the information they surmise was made available to every child, (they may have been in the bathroom at the time of the ‘how to be like everyone else’ lesson), and therefore be in a position to continue their lives in as close to a satisfying and fulfilling manner as possible. In the meantime, clarks spend their time on the fringe, they will cultivate friendships with scotts and rogers to help pass the time and to get them into the better clubs. clarks are the truly creative of the three personality types which sounds cooler than it actually is, as most expressions of extreme creativity are, as a rule, met with scorn, disdain and disregard (not to mention, not paying very well). clarks take un-selfishness to a near psychotic level, valuing loyalty over any other ‘common emotional experience’, they will be the best, of the three personality types, to have around at times of emergency, they make excellent school teachers (female clarks: grade school, male clarks: late high school, college). The saying is ‘clarks live quietly and leave a well-preserved corpse’

scotts: the Predator, view the world as any well-armed, well-equipped conqueror would. The goal for most scotts is to live life to the fullest, everyday, up until someone forces them to stop. scotts are natural leaders, with the qualification that those who follow scotts do not have any carefully thought-out expectations as to where they will end up, when the scott becomes bored with the leadership-thing. scotts crave attention the way most aerobic lifeforms crave oxygen, so much so, that a scott will settle for any kind of attention, up to and including: derision, laughter, scorn, hate, love or passion….all the same to a scott. female scotts created the stiletto heel industry, single….er, handedly. scotts, both male and female, are attracted to rogers as their preferred form of nourishment. scotts do enjoy the company of clarks, as clarks are neither prey nor predator (at least, most of the time)…scotts are just out for a good time, a loud time, a passionate time. These are the people that they say, ‘live fast (with as many partners as possible) and leave a burnt out shell of a corpse’

rogers: the Herd Member, rogers view the world as does the Cleric standing behind the Conqueror salivating at the prospect of bringing salvation to an entire race of indigenous peoples. rogers are the reason that we have: civilization, healthcare, culture, jihad(s), jetliners that hardly ever crash, a banking system (that will on occasion, crash) law and justice, witch burnings and the commercialization of the arts. rogers provide stability to the human experience at the cost of innovations and creativity. After the scott has raped and pillaged and burned the new continent and moves on, the rogers will organize and provide relief to the survivors, provided they, (the survivors), are willing to accept the lord and god and the rules and the life that he/she (the roger) is so kind to bring to a people, so obviously in dire need. These people! These are the ones we say, ‘live moderately and imagine how many people will attend the funeral of the corpse that proves you lived‘.

Hey, congratulations!! You’ve made it this far. A bonus you have surely earned!

Ways to identify them clarks, scotts and rogers.

clarks: their dress is very, eclectic with a shading towards long coats and dark colors but! the male clarks will do something weird and outlandish with some feature of their dress, i.e. outlandish colored socks or ties , the female clarks, preferring the couture of the House of Androgyny… will favor the slightest touch of metal or ink, perhaps a contrasting color in the hair, a little purple or orange to bring out the highlights…oh! bad posture is a sure indicator of the clark personality type

scotts: the eyes! you will always spot the scott by their eyes. A scott will, (hardly ever), be observed not paying attention to their immediate environment. They are very animated in movement, the male scotts in near constant physical motion, the female scotts will have the males (rogers and clarks) in motion on their behalf. scotts are easy to spot

rogers: well dressed…like a Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner in House Beautiful, the rogerian female will have all the right accessories in all the fashionable shades, the males rogers will be spotted by their predilection, not yet fully understood, for hats! and facial hair and corporate logos, wherever tasteful, of course!

And, finally a little music!