self-development | the Wakefield Doctrine

Monday daymoN -the Wakefield Doctrine-

November 20, 2023 By clarkscottroger

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

RePrint Monday. Want to be sure to be obscure with our pick for a Monday RePrint, as we’re starting a week that is the occasion of the first of the ‘damn! no way we can do better than the first post! Let’s cut ‘n paste that bad boy and be done with it!’

That is correct, yo. Thanksgiving week. It’s the holiday that’s as on-book with the Doctrine as the Pesci/DeNiro Casino pen scene.

(New Readers: Here in Oceania, there is a holiday that we sometimes refer to as the Feast of Saint Roger. Always in November, all citizens are pretty much required to acknowledge, if not participate in it. And the liturgy of the day is celebration of everything rogerian. (Seriously! Tell us another day of the year that, as part of the holiday festivities, includes what can best be described as a lay collēcta invoked by a weekday morning weatherman!)

sorry, getting ahead of ourselfs.

Tomorrow is Tuesday, The morning of the Book of Wakefield (WIP) Then… Six Sentence Story day and then Thursday (‘Hallowed be thy college football game’)

But for today:

‘why is a raven like a writing desk’? (and) what is the Wakefield Doctrine’s take on those other personality theories?

September 27, 2011

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

A frequently asked question: ” What does the Wakefield Doctrine call this personality type? ( Always one of some other personality theory’s type), i.e. the Driver Type ( from the Merrill-Reid schema) or the ‘Type 2 ( of the 9 Enneagram Types ) or even the famous Axis 4 (from the rogerian geek school of personality typology). Sometimes answering this question is fun, other times it is frustrating but the outcome of this exchange is always less than is hoped for by the person posing the question.

Comparisons between mainstream personality types systems and the Wakefield Doctrine hardly ever yields an answer that is satisfactory to the interlocutor or the listener. While the underlying motivation for these questions is often well-meaning, the goal behind asking them is misguided. ( “well, don’t you see?  The Wakefield Doctrine and (  well-known personality theory) are both talking about the same thing, so the Doctrineis not so unusual or odd or weird! Maybe if you describe clarks and scotts and rogers using some of the same  language, you will attract more people to the blog!”
At this point the answer (from the Wakefield Doctrine is always the same: No.   (…for 2 reasons):

The Wakefield Doctrine is not scientifically based on empirical data nor does it rely on test subjects providing statistically significant and consistent reporting of identification with certain traits or behavior(s). The Wakefield Doctrine does not approach the ‘classification of personality’ on the basis of traits and quirks, phobias and foibles gathered from a test subject. ‘Personality Typing by Chart’,  in which check-marks are totalled/summed up and added up, with a score at the bottom of a column labeld: ‘Your Personality Type! A lot like a dinner party at a restaurant, the host glances down to the bottom of the bill that the Waiter has brought to the table. Scanning the menu items and tallying the cost, the guests will hear:    “OK! who had the FEAR OF HEIGHTS with the DISDAIN FOR AUTHORITY Combo?  no, scott!! I am sure you ordered the MECURIAL TEMPERMENT COMBINED WITH AN INGRAINED RESISTANCE TO LEARNING BY EXAMPLE! OK folks, the total  is: (2) Drivers with homophobic tendencies masked by an excessive interest in contact sports and (1) Passive-aggressive nurturing-type with un-resolved oedipal conflict compensated by a need to demonstrate language skills un-supported by actual ability! Alright everyone!! Ante up!”

the Wakefield Doctrine is for you, not for them!
For most of us, the attraction to ‘personality types’ and ‘personal profiles and assessment’ is founded in a genuine curiosity about ourselves and a sincere desire to help other people in our lives handle  their own problems and shortcomings better. Unfortunately, the focus all too often comes to rest on ‘the other person’.   We all know this person, a caring friend/relative/co-worker who goes to great lengths to find answers so that they can ‘help you’! With a magazine article in hand (or a book, or a CD or DVD) that promises to describe personality types and how to identify them…whats the second thing you/they do after learning these well-researched, empirically based systems of understand the human psyche? The second thing (and sometimes the first) is to say, “Hey! You know who is a real Driver personality? This personality system totally  got his/her number!! This is really helpful, I can’t wait to tell them how much I understand their personality!”
…this is where the Wakefield Doctrine and all the better researched, better marketed, widely-accepted personality theories part ways. No matter what you think you can do with the understanding that this Doctrine can help you get, it is for you, it is not for the other person.

Are we saying that the Wakefield Doctrine ( the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers ) is neither scientifically valid nor an effective method for helping other people to solve their intractable mental and emotional problems?
Yes, yes we are saying that.

So why bother with this thing of ours? Well, for starters:

you will have an advantage over the people you meet in the course of your day today

the behavior of the people in your life will make more sense to you (because of your understanding of the Wakefield Doctrine)

you will be able to anticipate the actions and (re)actions of people to virtually any situation

you will see your own life, habits, behaviors in a different light

you will have fun with your friends spotting the clarks and the scotts and the rogers as you go about your day today

Sound like reason enough to figure out this blogsite?

I promised Molly, a short and concise definition of the Wakefield Doctrine:

…three personality types predicated on (three) characteristic ways to perceive the world at large. All people are born with the potential to see the world as any of the three (types) that we call: clarks, scotts and rogers. (Further) the Doctrine maintains that at an early age we become predominately one (of the three) but we never lose the capacity to experience the world as do the other two. The personality types of the Wakefield Doctrine are gender and culture neutral and is predicated that the personality type is derived from understanding the reality in which a person lives, not by trying to identify specific traits, interests, drives or ideation. The Wakefield Doctrine is a tool meant to aid a person who would try to see the world as the other person does.

Works pretty damn well, too!

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: Personal, personality types, relationships, self-development, the Wakefield Doctrine

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

November 19, 2023 By clarkscottroger

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

This is the Doctrine’s contribution to the Ten Things of Thankful (TToT) bloghop. The once-a-week reflection on the people, places and things that have conspired, inspired and otherwise triggered a psycho-social state of mind sometimes referred to as gratitude.

1) Una

2) Phyllis

3) the Wakefield Doctrine

4) writing and such

5) Six Sentence Story bloghop

6) Project Pythagoras and the Saw of Density* (photo #7) ok: the second from the left (vertical) trees is the intended removal. Problem: though not visible in the photo the target tree was leaning towards the bridge (lower left) a lot. It wanted to fall on the bridge as a Hans Gruber gesture. The horizontal piece is a 10 foot cedar fence rail. What you can’t see (no, you’re right! there’s a lot you can’t see in this photo ‘illustration’. Sorry, there are no returns on your investment in this post. all ticket sales are final).

Due to the angles of the trees relative to each other, the target tree was being force into bending in the opposite direction. You remember that ‘flyer thing’ you learned from your scottian friend as a kid using popsicle sticks… wait, here: at the top of the post. One of those.

So we took the saw and cut real low (careful that, when the pressure was released, we didn’t get hit on the head by the fence rail). Success.

7) illustration

9) something, something

10) Secret Rule 1.3

8) oh, yeah skipped one! damn err…. grateful for double-checking my list before posting! (lol… and for the willingness of Readers to accept that, as the old saying reminds us, ‘Chaos is the amniotic fluid of creativity.’)

* a future hat for anyone who gets this reference Doctrine honor system applies**

** Doctrine honor system: a product of the Outsider worldview (and it’s propensity for learning things) says, even if someone types in the correct answer before you can, if you had the correct answer and was about to enter it in comments, go ahead and type it in. The clarks believe you.

music

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: self-development, the Wakefield Doctrine, three personality types

Tuesday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

November 14, 2023 By clarkscottroger

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

Lets start with:
the Wakefield Doctrine is a perspective. As such, it requires a certain willingness to imagine that things are one way and not, necessarily, only one way. We are talking, of course, about our experience in and with, reality.

[In the early days of this blog we’d be more direct, saying that to ‘get’ the Doctrine a Reader needed to have a certain, ‘flexibility of intelligence’. In the Ephedrine, Ringling, Oscar Myers axes, this is the famous, lesser known: WTHN*. Without the presence of an innate desire to play with ideas, the Wakefield Doctrine is simply a scheme to divide life into three characteristic relationships.]

Hey, wait. That’s exactly what we’re doing.

Fine. This post is intended to be, what the books on essay writing refer to as (the) introduction and thesis. Let’s agree here, at the beginning that, that….. ‘the purpose of this ~~paper~~ post is to present an overview of the principles of the Wakefield Doctrine, its practical uses and applications and, concurrently, noting (any) changes in the Doctrine itself. Well, to be a bit more accurate on this last, ‘changes in how we describe the Doctrine’.

…oh yeah! And! Maybe we need to jump into the Herd and offer advice and observation from our little personality theory/worldview. (Surely this is the most ambitious of goals. Hell, it’s not merely a goal, it would actually be a proof of concept, wouldn’t it?)

Far be it from us to stray far from the predominant worldview of your painfully-reliable Narrator, but …no! Wait. Will not indulge in the disclaimer that those of us of a certain predominant worldview would be trying to sneak in at this point. This highly visible point. (New Readers: not to worry. Secret Rule inherent here, in this effort: when you arrive at a certain point in your understanding and you are tempted to say, “I knew what they meant then!” We believe you.)

The Wakefield Doctrine is for you, not them.

…to be cont’d

*WTHN Why The Hell Not

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

et tu chewsdae? -the Wakefield Doctrine-

November 7, 2023 By clarkscottroger

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

ok, we’re getting a bit behind, lets get to the mail room!

Sure, we all know that Tuesday is the most clarklike day of the week. But like everything else about our favorite personality theory, it’s the questions we ask that lead to enlightening insights not the lectures we listen to or the text we memorize.

Let us grab a post from the 2011-2013 era (‘the write ever day Period of the Wakefield Doctrine) that addresses this topic

Tuesday at the Wakefield Doctrine (“alright, move along folks nothing to see here…that’s right just move along”)

January 8, 2013

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks… lol, the undeniable reality of scotts and the annoying certainty of rogers)Anyone seen a box of words? I am pretty sure I had some put away, under the bed or in the back of the closet, just in case. What’s the deal with the writing style of clarks and the non-use of contractions? We certainly don’t think like that! See? I used ‘don’t’ (as opposed to do not!). Well, the fact remains, I am missing a bunch of words and I really could stand to find them right about now.

Long time Readers know what’s coming next. But… we will let the new Readers enjoy the w…t…..f??! moment that comes with each and every one of these special Posts. Today’s Post is the blog equivalent of what, in the world of jokes and comedy, is referred to as a ‘shaggy dog’ story.¹ An example of such a story is provided in the footnote area. Better go down there right now, if you do not find yourself laughing (at very least chuckling) then you will not be amused when you have dragged yourself to the end of this rambling morass of a Tuesday Post. Serially. Better go there…now!

Still with us? Fine. Actually, the process of finding the shaggy dog reference in wikipedia and jamming it into this Post has gone a long way to get me out of the ‘what the hell! there are no words left in my (fill in favorite body-part here). But since you are still reading, it is only fair to give you something to take away, as a reward for your:

loyalty: which is a clarklike trait. notice we did not say it was an admirable quality …we did not!

stubbornness: scotts are stubborn, not for any reason that would produce a benefit, in fact, they should not be thought of as being stubborn for any reason, they just are

close-minded: rogers are the example of how being close-minded can be thought of as a good thing!

Now, rather than do the obvious and leave the above characterizations hanging out there, (like those still photos of scenes from X-rated movies that are used to illustrate the evils of ‘pornography’ btw: the people who use those kinds of photos are either scotts or rogers. And the reason we know this, is that there is a secret pruriency in the use of these photos that is beyond the capability of a clark. Seriously. Someone is standing in front of ‘an audience’, holding forth on the evils of the people who make such obscene movies and to better make their point, they hold up censored photos. Of course, even though the black-bars cover the offending body parts, a normal human being must, in their minds, provide an image of what is missing…otherwise the photo is totally non-meaningfull! And where do theses (mental) images come from? Exactly!)

Loyalty: this is a personal quality very frequently found in clarks, (about which) most people will say, “hey! that’s a really admirable quality!” …except that if you listen very, very closely you might hear them think, “...yeah, what elseare they gonna do?” ( hold your Comments until the end, clarks!)

Stubborness: all of us fortunate enough to have dogs, have played the tug of war game. Yep! your mind is now providing you with the image we are going for: ‘human hand holding pull-toy in the air, doggie suspended from the lower end of said toy…tail wagging the entire time’ scotts!

Close-minded (ness): Quick!! what’s 2 + 2? Right! Hey! what is 2 +2?? Still right!!! the best thing about rogers is their constancy …the worst thing about (HEY! 2+2…what’s the answer?!?) is their consistency! It is often said in these pages, the reason we have civilization is rogers…. and the reason we had the (Spanish Inquistion, the Crusades, the Salem Witch Trials, the ban in the 1960s on girls wearing slacks in high school, the existance of Ann Landers, the Electoral College, Prohibtion, the War of the Roses and the discovery of radium)?… rogers!

Feel free to ask us Questions! Better yet, mark tomorrow Wednesday 4:00 blogtalkradio the Wakefield Doctrine 30 Minute Radio Hour!

1) In its original sense, a shaggy dog story is an extremely long-winded tale featuring extensive narration of typically irrelevant incidents, usually resulting in a pointless or absurd punchline based on a play on words in cliché form. These stories are a special case of yarns, coming from the long tradition of campfire yarns. Shaggy dog stories play upon the audience’s preconceptions of the art of joke telling. The audience listens to the story with certain expectations, which are either simply not met or met in some entirely unexpected manner. A lengthy shaggy dog story derives its humour from the fact that the joke-teller held the attention of the listeners for a long time (such jokes can take five minutes or more to tell) for no reason at all, as the story ends with a meaningless anticlimax. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaggy_dog_story )

What some sources choose to believe is the archetypical shaggy dog story:

“A boy owned a dog that was uncommonly shaggy. Many people remarked upon its considerable shagginess. When the boy learned that there are contests for shaggy dogs, he entered his dog. The dog won first prize for shagginess in both the local and the regional competitions. The boy entered the dog in ever-larger contests, until finally he entered it in the world championship for shaggy dogs. When the judges had inspected all of the competing dogs, they remarked about the boy’s dog: “He’s not that shaggy.”

Cynthia asks:

Mimi queries:

Denise asserts:

Nick maintains:

Anonymous wonders: is there a purpose for the gratuitous link-drops here or are you choosing to insist it’s still the 1990s internet?

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

Tewsdae -the Wakefield Doctrine-

October 31, 2023 By clarkscottroger

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

This is being written on Halloween day. Surely there is a post, buried like a high school social trauma, that ties our favorite personality type(s) to this most clarklike, scottian, rogerian* day of the year, at least as it manifests here in Oceania.

Man! We’re all typity-mc-type typey this morning. Gotta bring it home.

Reprint:

the first of the mandatory holidays, the Wakefield Doctrine does, in fact, claim to be able to tell you which are your favorite holidays!

October 25, 2012

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine ( the theory that, while very challenging to understand, is sort of self-selecting for the kind of intellect that makes the effort worthwhile! )

Seeing how we have a number of new Readers and even some new FOTDs¹ a little backstory on the presence and prominence of holidays, vis-à-vis the Wakefield Doctrine, might be in order. Holidays are fricken huge with us. Any questions?²

First up: Halloween!

I was thinking about making this a Quiz and offering a prize for the correct answer. But when I thought about Halloween (and) the visuals flooded my mind, I realized there could be no question which of the three personality types of the Wakefield Doctrine ‘own this day’… even if you are here for the first time… if you are a total new Reader (as in “ Well, I have read about 177 words about the Wakefield Doctrine, why do you ask?” ), you will get this one right!
As a matter of fact! I am so sure that, with a simple description of the Doctrine, you will know the correct answer, we will give you a free Wakefield DocTee! All ya gotta do is write a Comment and tell us your answer. (some restrictions may apply³). Ready?

The Wakefield Doctrine maintains that what people call ‘personality types’ are the normal, appropriate, and entirely healthy strategies that a person will develop in their effort to get through life. What we do differently from the other systems of personality types is maintain that there are three characteristic worldviews (the personal reality that you wake up to each morning⁴) and our three personality types are the natural outcome from living in these realities:

the world of the Outsider, ever apart, never quite fitting in and most important (to living in this reality), this personality type, the clark will think, “I am here and the world is out there..damn, I better figure this one out before anyone notices“

the life of the Predator, active totally full of life, always on the move, this personality type, the scott will say, “Hey, screw all them head games! life’s too short! I don’t care if you don’t like me…as long as you don’t ignore me! Did I say, Hey! yet?”

the environment of the Herd member, always ‘a part of’, very sure of how things should be, this personality type, the roger feels that, “whats to worry about? if you are following the rules then you will be taken care of, no one suffers in life…unless they brought it on themselves… you know, breaking the rules…not living the right way!“

There you go. Three personality types. One Holiday:

…where everyone gets permission to be someone/something else, the successful participant in this Holiday is the person who hears, “Wow! I’m shocked and amazed! I would never have guessed that was you”

Halloween is the Holiday of : a) clarks or 2) scotts or c) rogers because…

…you know this one! take your time, think it through, we find that with a lot of the Doctrine, your first ‘guess’ is the correct answer. A little relaxing music, perhaps?

1) totally people like Cyndi…(Cyndi actually has us on her website’s blogroll, can I get a “damn!”!)

2) better than answering questions, go read some of the previous holiday-centric Posts like “J’accuse!…”

3) sorry, DownSprings and Progenitors not eligible.

4) we mean the personal nature of the reality that you experience, that everyone experiences, nothing too metaphysical or weird or nothing, but it is critical to getting a benefit from the Wakefield Doctrine that you appreciate that we do mean ‘reality’, as in real, not something like a choice in how you feel about it, or a preference that you make about the nature of the cultural institutions in your life or even a bias towards one view of cause and effect over the other…. no we mean that the world is one of predator and prey to the scott and the nature of the world and everything in it is about a clark being the outsider…

***

* Who shouted, “What about the Everything Rule?”¹ Very good. Who says only clarks get the Wakefield Doctrine**

** ok… other than scotts and rogers with strong secondary clarklike aspects

the Everything Rule: Everyone does everything at one time or another. Simply put: the Wakefield Doctrine is all about how we relate ourselfs to the world around us². The characteristics, the quality, the nature… the personal reality we all exist in is directly related to our relationship (to it). We are, all of us, born with the potential to experience one of three (and only three) relationships: that of the Outsider (clarks), the Predator (scotts) or the Herd Member (rogers). We grow and mature and practice and learn and resign ourselves to a certain style of living and acting (aka personality type) in these ‘personal realities’. (For the Wakefield Doctrine), our personalities are not the modified/negotiated/adjusted to/ list of qualities, tropisms, drives, wants, fears, ambitions or desires that become routine and habitual. Out personality types are (from the Doctrine perspective) the best we could do to survive and thrive in the world as we experience it.