How the "Judge" Concept Applies to Terrorism

Richard Malter, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist (retired)

(c) 2001

In this era of saying the "politically correct" things, I liked what Jonah Goldberg discussed in his recent column "Violence in the Name of God" that was published in the Arizona Republic on October 26, 2001.  Since September 11^th, one of the most critical issues in dealing with the terrorist threat is to unmask the terrorists and extremists who use the rhetoric of religion to rationalize the mass murder of civilians with deliberate diabolical planning.

I would like to add a psychological perspective that may help to clarify what Goldberg said in his column, especially in regard to the "backwardness" of many Muslim societies that use the "mindset" of religion to justify cruelty and barbarity.  For over 20 years, I have been working with the concept of the "Judge" in psychotherapy and counseling.  It is a part of our human nature and is the "dark side" of each of us.  It is also a major part of the cruel and barbaric "mindset" described by Goldberg.  The Judge is inherently "anti-life, anti-freedom, and anti-spirituality."  It is always involved with "power and control."  Psychologically, it demands total submission to its authority and rule "...or else."  Therefore, by its very nature, the Judge is inherently political with total domination and destruction of life and spirit as its major goals. 

The Judge is also closely related to our stress response -- the "fight or flight" survival response.  Whenever we are seriously threatened and attacked, our natural self-protective response is to react with the fight or flight mode physiologically and psychologically.  Additionally, as our stress response intensifies, outside of our awareness, this Judge component in our personalities inflates like a huge balloon, usually with a very scary image imprinted on it.  This inflated Judge image is psychologically like an "entity" that further intensifies our stress response and keeps us in a vicious cycle of intense stress.  Psychologically, this is the major way in which terrorists achieve some of their key objectives.  What they have accomplished with their diabolical plot has been to shock us, frighten us, keep us off balance, and confuse us.  In effect, by increasing our anxiety and stress reactions, the terrorists have also stirred up within each of us our own "inner terrorist" -- the Judge component of each of our personalities.

With this psychological frame of reference, when Goldberg describes the "backwardness" of many Muslim societies, what is also at work psychologically in these types of societies is the dominance of the Judge in individual personalities, in families, in their religion, and in their governments.  Psychologically, fundamentalist religions are inherently dominated by the Judge mode of thinking and operating in the world.  There is a strong tendency towards simplistic concrete thinking about the world -- good and bad, right and wrong, black and white, believers and infidels.  When the Judge is dominant psychologically, it gives permission for governments and politicians to lie and to distort the reality of events, especially when it serves to whip up the raw emotions of the masses and to reinforce rage and hatred.  As rage and hatred intensify, the Judge is further inflated psychologically in individuals and in the masses.  This provides fertile ground for the extremist and terrorist leaders to manipulate and exploit people for their own political agenda.  Historically, terrorists and extremists have used lies, distortions and threats to intensify people's emotions in order to more easily manipulate them for political purposes.  Hitler and his henchmen were masters of this destructive political process.  However, we should not lose sight of the fact that, within our own society and culture, the Judge also can be active in individuals, relationships, families, organizations, and government.    

When the Judge becomes dominant psychologically and politically as it is with the terrorists, the Judge gives permission to commit mass murder in a very cold, unfeeling, uncaring, and calculated way.  This is the psychological nature of the Judge.  Every time they succeed in mass murder, it feeds their grandiosity. When Judge-dominated people are not successfully opposed and defeated, they become more grandiose and bolder in their plots and plans that result in much more death and destruction.  Historically, we saw this in the 1930's with Hitler and the Nazis.  With Bin Laden, we have seen this escalation over the past ten years.  It took the catastrophe of September 11th to finally get our attention.  This is really a life and death struggle now as it always is when dealing with very Judge-dominated people. 

Hopefully, with a better understanding of the psychology of terrorism, we will be able to maintain our focus and resolve in order to confront and defeat this evil force.  However, in order to do this most effectively, as individuals and a society, we need to be able to mobilize what Jungian psychologists call the "Warrior" archetype in personality.  This is the personality part of each of us that is strong, fearless, protective, and committed to our highest values, especially those related to the human spirit.  The Warrior archetype is capable of standing up to the Judge and defeating its evil destructive intentions.  The Warrior does not do the "politically correct" thing.  It does what is right and necessary to defeat evil.  Winston Churchill embodied the Warrior archetype in the manner in which he mobilized the British people to courageously stand up to Hitler.  Tony Blair, the current British Prime Minister, captured that same Warrior archetypal energy and spirit when he recently spoke to his party following the September 11th catastrophe.  He was well aware of the Churchill legacy.

A major challenge for us as individuals and as a society is to gain a better understanding of the psychology of the Judge and of the Warrior archetype.  We need to learn to recognize our own Judge and to diminish its control over our emotions and behavior.  This is what I call "shrinking" the Judge.  We also need to recognize that there is enormous psychological strength within each of us that is reflected in the Warrior archetype.  The more that each of us can draw on our own Warrior energy, the better we will be able to recover from the catastrophe of September 11^th and to cope with the threats that have followed. 

Tony Blair embodied the Warrior archetype in his speech to his party just as Winston Churchill did for the British people 60 years ago.  Psychologically, we need to see and hear that speech over and over again until we really grasp the essence of the Warrior's energy and determination to stand up to the evil agenda of the Judge in the terrorists.  However, in these stressful times, we also need to be aware that the Judge may manifest politically here in America as our government strives to cope with terrorist threats by passing new laws and develops new policies to "protect" us.    

Jonah Goldberg provided a very thought provoking column that said what needed to be said.  "Political correctness" is not the way of the Warrior.