self-improvement | the Wakefield Doctrine

Wednesday -the Wakefield Doctrine- “… so what, exactly, did you see, that day in the music store?”

November 11, 2020 By clarkscottroger

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

Today we come to the conclusion (and conclusions) of our re-telling of the origin of the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers.

New Readers? the Wakefield Doctrine offers a perspective on our world(s) and the people who make it up. Starting with the idea, the notion, the ‘let’s imagine for a second that‘ we’re all born with the potential to experience the world in one of three quite distinct ways and then proposing that our natural efforts to learn to deal with, develop strategies to contend with, create a personality suited to the condition that we, still tiny, little babies, must engage, results in the three personality types of the Wakefield Doctrine:

clark (the Outsider) forever apart from, always searching for the information that the other two personality types obviously were taught, moving through the shadows both in broad daylight and clutching night
scott (the Predator) never resting, never deprived, asking only to be free to chase desires and live as a member of a pack in which one’s place, in this necessarily vertical arrangement, carries not the slightest value judgement on the individual
roger (the Herd Member) the epitome of social Man, connected to all that matters and accentuating all that does not, the world is a beautifully, (and sometimes insidiously), crafted machine for the world of Men and Women to explore, map, organize and subjugate.

We all move through one, (and only one), of these three worlds. We retain the potential, the atrophied urges to think, act or feel as would the two other worldviews, but we are of one world. Once we accept that, (in ourselves and, at arms length, in others), we are better equipped to see the world as the other person is experiencing it. The Wakefield Doctrine is a tool to appreciate how we relate ourselves to the world around us.

If you’re just joining us, this, as we said above, is the conclusion of the origin of the Wakefield Doctrine. The first installment set up the scene and introduced the players, (Click Here Part 1). The second installment bring the action to a climax, moving the people, (and concepts), into position, (Click Here Part 2) and today we have the denouement *.

The brass bell over the door signaled the ‘all clear’ and the world was almost the same as when it announced the arrival of the man with the dual cassette dubbing deck.

Scott gave no indications that he was aware of any change to the world. (Of course, he didn’t. The sun was still at the right point on its arc for the time of day and the earth was still staying beneath our feet.)

I felt the change. I knew there was a change.

Yet even now, forty can’t-be-that-many-years later, I struggle to articulate my state of mind. Close to the feeling you get when, one second before you scrape the 5/8ths-complete jigsaw puzzle into the box and go do something fun, you pick up a piece without thinking and it is the piece that not only fits, but joins several, seemingly disparate pieces, creating more of a whole.

Perhaps the most useful moral of our little story of cassette recorders and music stores is more than, ‘This is a key to understanding the world’. Perhaps it is to accept, (and build upon), the idea that, ‘This key is a proof of the world being understandable’.

* that is such a cool word, like speaking rhetoric with a French accent… at least, the clark within hopes**

** slightly advanced level Doctrine: while we all have one (and only one) predominant worldview, we never lose the potential of ‘the other two’. And, …and! for reasons not yet understood, some of us develop more significant secondary (and tertiary) aspects than others. Example: I am a clark. I have a significant secondary scottian aspect. Everything in these pages, on this blog, is evidence of that. Why do I say that? ’cause if I was a clark with negligible secondary (and tertiary) aspects I’d be quite satisfied writing these posts in my head (maybe sharing them with a very close friend). And I sure as shit would think twice about whipping out a word like ‘denouement’.

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: psychology of personality, self-improvement, the Wakefield Doctrine, three personality types, Understanding Human Behavior

Tuesday -the Wakefield Doctrine- “Agree…Disagree…No Fricken Way”

November 3, 2020 By clarkscottroger

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

Now there’s a subtitle fashioned to set fire to a Reader’s heart!

(ed. We continue to eschew: the purloined parent’s cigarettes, peer-pressure illicit alcohol and Disney-inspired semi-pedaephilic romances, so, our response to your eyebrow semaphore is “No! This post is about…”)

…the fundamental distinction between the Wakefield Doctrine and most other personality theories/tests/’how-to-tell-if’ popular quizzes and …and! it also refers to the simplest approach for determining another person’s predominant worldviews*.

Distinction: lots of those personality tests, quizzes, surveys and EBRTII-axis-(with-ac-and-power-steering) take the approach of self-reporting, i.e. tell us your likes, dislikes and tendency to respond to that situation. Then you add up the scores (no cheating!) and discover your True (and-really-cooler-than-anyone-gives-you-credit-for) Personality Type! OK, nothing wrong with that! Especially if you’re in the market for a club-shaped mirror. The Wakefield Doctrine takes a different approach.

Doesn’t matter what you think. Doesn’t matter what you do. Doesn’t matter how you feel.

….any more questions?

The reason the Wakefield Doctrine, skillfully applied, allows you to know more about the other person than you have any right to know is that the basis of the Doctrine is the relationship between us (collectively) and the world (around us). That relationship is observable. The holy-smoke-how-did-these-qualities-get-so-aptly-grouped power of the Wakefield Doctrine is simply this:

imagine you are an Outsider(clark), from the moment you could reflect on the world around you, you see/think/believe there is a difference between you and most everyone, more so, as you try to determine the basis for this difference, you are forced into the conviction that most everyone else knows each/know-to-do/are a part and share something you know that you are missing. So you develop your strategy and social coping mechanisms and style… you learn to act like a clark
the world moves fast, it doesn’t ask your permission, it has a tendency to surprise, (fun surprise and fatal surprise), you are in the world of the Predator(scott), without taking the time to think, you react, accepting the nature of the world, seeing no profit in arguing with the fairness, you practice assessment and response, you enjoy the action, you cherish the variety, chase and be chased, its fun
you look around you, you see the parts and you see how they connect, you join the Herd Members(roger), the world is beautiful and it is imperfect, you are encouraged by the fact you know there are those around you who share your appreciation and they look to you to help discover the nature of the problem and to work out the Right Way, like an equation, a¹ + b² = c³ it is both solid and beautiful and reliable (it does not state: a*(sometimes)… it describes the quantifiable reliability of the world…

So, here when we want to know about another person, the first question we pose ourselfs is ‘how are they relating themselves to the world around them? as an Outsider or a Predator or a Herd Member… everything else follows from that

The second inference of our subtitle relates to the effort to discern a person’s predominant worldview aka personality type. We have three to choose from, one (of the three) is quickly determined to be a ‘no fricken way’. That leaves two worldviews. Like the last time you were at the optimist’s, look at the world from where they are standing, ‘Is that clear?’ now, (click) try this, is that clearer than before’ (click) how about this…

we did say this personality theory was fun, didn’t we?

*seein how we getting more and more views and reads and other google breadcrumbs of late, we want to remind all of one of the first (and few) rules of the Wakefield Doctrine. No one can say “You’re a clark (or) a scott (yeah, like thats likely to happen) or roger and claim this theory as their authority. (Did someone mutter ‘Referential Authority”?**) You are the one that decides, determines, accepts or laughs in relief which of the three personal reality applies to you.

** very apt, though beyond the scope of this Post. In short: referential authority is a deep artifact discovered by the Doctrine and represents a fundamental, if no secret, element in the world of the Herd Member

#theWakefieldDoctrine

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: Personal, personality types, psychology of personality, self-improvement, the Wakefield Doctrine

Friday -the Wakefield Doctrine- “…and holds his clarklike aspect cheap*”

October 30, 2020 By clarkscottroger

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

Tomorrow is Halloween. If the Wakefield Doctrine were a religion, then surely we would be celebrating the Feast of St. Clark.

Students of the Doctrine, sitting at their computers, cauldrons of coffee to the side, watching the new day dawn like a conscripted soldier, towards the back of the crowd in listening to the most excellent speech from ‘Henry V’ (the Branagh version), are smiling to no one in particular and muttering, “A saint clark, as if”.

“And why”, a well-intentioned, yet tentative, New Reader asks, looking around the metaphorical library/coffee house/study/daytime bedroom, “Do you smile like that?”

Though on the morrow, clarks will leave their homes and mix with others in open and laughing fun, there will never be a Saint Clark because to be designated and otherwise honored as a saint requires a consensus and Outsiders are as alien to consensus as a hummingbird to the depths of the ocean.

Great scene (vid below). (Why no, I have not, in fact, watched the entire movie. I’m a clark)

As to Halloween and clarks? Before we mine history for expressions of this most clarklike of holidays, lets just say, the reason clarks embrace Halloween is because, for a brief time, we can be someone else, while sharing the company of ‘real’ people. It need not be a costume of opposites, nor is our preferred disguise a mirror. We simply have a ‘Pass’ to act and feel as we might.

“What? Who in the back of this comfortable, if not metaphoric room, shouted, ‘The Everything Rule is the Key of Solomon!’

Who ever it was, is absolutely correct. All three types ‘do’ Halloween. Halloween, however, manifests differently for each.”

Here’s that reprint (from October 31, 2014) I promised.

Welcome to… (sorry do your own scary, radio voice-over audio here) Velcome to ze Vakefield Doctrine… (the spookiest, most useful and fun theory of creepy-clarks, scary scotts and… and regulatory! rogers!)

Yeah, I’m kinda surprised too. How I got through the last 4 years without a Post on the topic of Halloween is totally beyond me. I’ll bet I mentioned it, (Halloween), on a number of occasions, if for no other reason than Halloween is one of the Big Three ( holiday celebrations), and marks the end of Summer! In any event, all that changes today!

hey! here’s a disquieting surprise! I was about to do a bullet-point listing of Halloween and the three personality types (knowing that this is a clarklike holiday) and I thought to check Wikipedia for a reference, or at very least a good image (I’m a Contributing Member of Wikipedia, so I’m comfortable using ‘our’ images*)… and my stomach turned at what I read.

…this (my reaction to my anticipation of the Reader’s reaction, is what I’m finding interesting). I’m finally coming to appreciate that most Readers are more advanced in their understanding of the principles and application of the Doctrine.** …anyway I thought, “man! I don’t have to even have to explain what it is about this citation that makes me feel…. (something: not pleasant, but more on the wistfully regretful, rather than scared or outraged). Weird, huh?

Screw this reflectioning, here’s the citation from Wikipedia:

Development of artifacts and symbols associated with Halloween formed over time. Jack-o’-lanterns are traditionally carried by guisers on All Hallows’ Eve in order to frighten evil spirits. There is a popular Irish Christian folktale associated with the jack-o’-lantern, which in lore, is said to represent a “soul who has been denied entry into both heaven and hell”:

On route home after a night’s drinking, Jack encounters the Devil and tricks him into climbing a tree. A quick-thinking Jack etches the sign of the cross into the bark, thus trapping the Devil. Jack strikes a bargain that Satan can never claim his soul. After a life of sin, drink, and mendacity, Jack is refused entry to heaven when he dies. Keeping his promise, the Devil refuses to let Jack into hell and throws a live coal straight from the fires of hell at him. It was a cold night, so Jack places the coal in a hollowed out turnip to stop it from going out, since which time Jack and his lantern have been roaming looking for a place to rest.

(neither the hell (waiting for the scotts) nor the heaven (of the rogers) awww…. poor clark)

Halloween:

clarks see opportunity but are limited by their capacity to trust the costume

scotts see fun but are limited by the restriction of custom… vandalism is out of favor, organized marches through neighborhood streets are de rigueur what kind of fun is that?!

rogers see celebration, but their fun is to be standing inside the door, when the participants come marching up the driveway

* Wm ‘who said I was a roger?!?!’ Shakespeare

a little holiday music (would some explain how they got Charles Nelson Reilly to play the conductor?)

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

Wednesday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

October 28, 2020 By clarkscottroger

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

You know why there is such an emphasis on the concept of personal reality here at the Doctrine?

Well, before I answer that, let me go on record as saying that accepting the concept of personal reality avails one of the most immediate benefits of this here personality theory here. It is totally a Pepto Bismal shake, (with crumbled Rolaid topping), to relieve cognitive dissonance. (At least, in the cases of Reflective Cognitive Dissonance*)

We all encounter, or have friends, who at one time or another acquire and/or profess beliefs and opinions that seem to stand in direct opposition of everything they’ve always stood for or believed. For our purposes, we’re referring to opinions on the world and life and such, otherwise they remain the same people they have always been. Except for this one thing.

Because we all are, for the most part, reasonable people, we try to understand how these friends/co-workers/classmates/family members can: believe that/do that/espouse ideas.

And we fail.

But, because they are friends or family members, we don’t want to give up. So we look at what they say, (or do or espouse), and turn it upside down and look at it sideways. No luck. It still doesn’t make sense. To make matters worse, they are still the same person, except for this one little, (but thoroughly aggravating) instance.

Personal reality, (and his really hot partner, Perspective), is the only thing that allows us to resolve this mental/emotional turmoil. (‘Cause they’re not gonna change, no matter how many times we say, “Yeah, but….!”)

The conflict is within us. We are trying to reconcile a conflicting belief/idea with our own personal reality that does not (here’s a total hint) include the ideas of our friend/family that is not making sense. Well, duh.

Allow that, within their personal reality, (a thin layer of translucent colored cellophane through which light must pass, their reality includes facts, principles, inferences, ideas, conclusions and assumptions, both empirical and satirical, reasons, ratiocination and damn-fool stubbornness, all, of course, a priori), they feel no conflict in their beliefs**.

The beauty part of employing the concept of personal reality to this problem is that it does not require anything from you. There is an old(ish) saying here at the Wakefield Doctrine, ‘the Doctrine is for you, not them.’

For some, this, (acquiring an additional perspective), manifests as a threat. If I imagine there is another reality, one that is real as the one I know, then what does it say about my world?! It will destroy the trueness of everything! It can’t be permitted.

It’s worth repeating. If you can allow that the personal reality of another person can account for a particular aberration, then that resolves the conflict within you. And…and! this acceptance does not constitute condoning, agreeing or any ‘ing’ relative to the belief in question. This about you, not them.

So, for cases of Reflective Cognitive Dissonance, (not a ‘real’ psychological condition), more is not less.

Adding, in and of itself, can’t subtract, unless you add a different ….(what did they call it in grade school? operation! yeah! ) a different operation.

* though probably not in any DSM you’re likely to find, we’re using RCG as a term to describe the state of conflict when you observe a friend or family member espousing, sometime joyfully, ideas and attitudes that… that, well, they really must know better than that!! You know them, they’re not like that, except for this one area of their life, they show all the normal and consistent beliefs they’ve always maintained.

** the favored illustration of the normalcy of inconsistency of reality*** is three people standing on the sidewalk of a busy city street across from a popular restaurant. Its lunch hour, the reputation of the eatery is well-established; the line is beginning to extend out the door. The reactions, (lets picture thought balloons over the heads of our three hungry people): “Well, that looks like a wait of fifteen minutes and I’ve got to…” “Awright! Leave it to me, I went out with that person at the door.” “Home.”

*** lol, no, seriously, you should write one of these posts… its totally fun

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: clarkscottroger, personality types, self-improvement, the Wakefield Doctrine

Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

October 26, 2020 By clarkscottroger

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

Continuing with our renewed effort to present the principles of the Wakefield Doctrine to a new(ish) Readership, let’s focus on identifying the three personality types in the ‘real’ world.

You, in your journey through the day will encounter: friends, acquaintances, near strangers, totally-strangers, people you have seen before and, in theory, people with whom you’ve never crossed paths; depending on the form of your reality, there will sales clerks, police officials, teachers, co-workers, supervisors and sub-ordinates and they will all share one thing in common.

They are in your world.

(Big lead up, questionable close? well, yeah.)

The reason ‘They are in your world.’ is the jumping off point is to remind us that we, all of us, act, interact, react and hide from some, none or all of the things that make up our world.

Where the Wakefield Doctrine comes in and becomes more useful than it should be, is that it, (the Doctrine), is about how people, (all and more than the above), relate themselves to the world around them. They relate themselves as best they can, given the character/nature/style/form of the reality they are experiencing. (Quick note: all reality is, to a small degree, personal. The common world is full of semi-solid things, people and institutions and such. The personal aspect of reality and the world waiting for us on the other side of sleep-closed eyes, is grounded in our lifes and experiences.)

The Wakefield Doctrine describes three ways we relate ourselfs to the world around us:

as Outsiders(clarks)
as Predators(scotts)
as Herd Members(rogers)

The most difficult approach to learning to use the principles of the Wakefield Doctrine is, when encountering a person, to ask yourself: is this person experiencing the world as an Outsider would or are they living the life of a Predator or are they simply Members of the Herd?

The fun way is to read enough for these posts to acquire a list of behaviors and characteristics of the three worldview and be on the lookout for them.

See, the thing about the Doctrine is, and the way it is different from those systems where you checkoff a list of behaviors and interests, likes and dislikes and then add up the score to see what category they fall into, we start with the reality, (one of three and only one of three), in which the person developed their ‘personality’. In this world/reality (that of the Outsider or the Predator or the Herd Member) we all developed our coping mechanisms, worked out the social strategy that gave us the best shot at being a successful lifeform. Using the Doctrine is simply a matter of remembering the characteristics of these three realties.

A clark mumbles, puts their hands to their faces way too much, acts shy, expresses genuine creativity and constantly moves in the shade of ‘real’ people, acquiring a small number of friends and hordes of people who can’t remember their actual name. These behaviors and attitudes, (among others), are the strategies that works best for the Outsider.

A scott shouts, moves quickly and decisively and acts on their impulses without second-guessing because the world they grew up in was in no way different from the nature-unplugged world of the predators we all know and love (from a safe distance): i.e. lions, tryansauri rexeses, hawks, sharks and the like. To live for the moment and in the moment is the strategy that best serves the Predator.

A roger is confident and self-assured because the world in which they formed their personal style is the reality of the Quantifiable and Certifiable. They are good team members because everything worthwhile in the world is related on some level. They know the secret to a successful life among their peers, (the Herd), is to discover the Right Way to do things. The ambition held in highest regard among Members of the Herd is to share that knowledge.

Thats all we have time for today.

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