Psychological Factors, Stress, and Health/Disease Care
Rick Malter, Ph.D., Rosalie Malter, M.A.
e-mail: rickmind@cableone.net
© 2009
It is a well established fact that stress affects us both physically and psychologically. Medical doctors often advise their patients to do something about reducing the stress in their lives because stress will worsen most medical conditions ranging from diabetes to heart disease to arthritis. However, most doctors usually don’t give very specific stress reduction information to their patients because the doctors really don’t know specific ways that their patients can effectively reduce their stress levels.
For most people, including medical doctors, stress is too vague and not very well understood. However, the symptoms of stress are well recognized by most people: feeling constant tension and pressure to perform, expectations to be perfect, feeling like a failure, feeling anxiety or depression for no apparent reason, having high blood pressure, feeling that one’s life is out of our control, tense muscles, shallow breathing or holding one’s breath. As a person’s stress intensifies, a powerful negative psychological entity becomes activated and adversely affects our thinking. Dr. Rick Malter, a retired clinical psychologist, calls this psychological entity the Judge.
As Dr. Rick and Rosalie Malter discovered when they were introduced to the Judge concept by Dr. John Cooper in 1977, it is the ultimate negative part of human personality. What the Malters refer to as the psychological Judge is inherently anti-life, anti-spirit and blocks the life force and healing energy. The Judge is a universal human characteristic in all people. The Judge is a significant part of human nature that is closely related to the basic stress response – the “fight or flight” response. There are many different nuances to the Judge concept that make it extraordinarily meaningful to most people.
The Malters’ book "Shrinking the Judge: Freeing the Inner Child" incorporates the Judge concept into a new psychological model for counseling, personal growth, and stress management. The book provides a detailed description of this powerful new model that brings together concepts from Jungian psychology, transactional analysis (TA), and addiction recovery. The components of the model are the Judge, the "Inner Child," and the "Warrior" Jungian archetype. This psychological model is especially useful in coping with the stress of injury or illness.
When a person is under intense stress with a health crisis – an injury or disease, having an awareness and understanding of the Judge concept can make a world of difference in getting through the crisis. Whenever a person has an injury or illness, the increased stress brings out the Judge. The Judge in the patient usually inflates and dominates the patient’s thinking and feelings. The patient often is reduced to a child-like position, totally dependent on the medical team for care and treatment. The patient frequently feels a loss of control and becomes extremely fearful for her/his own survival. The Judge in the doctor’s personality often becomes a critical factor affecting the patient. The nature of most medical education and training programs is that they reinforce the Judge in the doctor’s personality. He/she is expected to have all the right answers and cannot have any weaknesses or failures. Therefore, the doctor’s Judge tells him that he has to be in total control of any situation. He cannot tolerate any doubts or uncertainties. He cannot tolerate any questioning or challenging of his authority and decisions. The “good” patient is one who is compliant and submissive, accepting everything that the doctor says as gospel truth. The doctor expects the patient and his/her family to view him as infallible.
The Judge also can be inflated in the spouse or significant other. When this occurs, the spouse’s Judge often forms an alliance with the doctor’s Judge in order to pressure the patient to be submissive and compliant in following the doctor’s orders.
The Judge in the other family members also may form an alliance with the doctor’s Judge. When the family Judges make alliances with the doctor’s Judge, the patient often feels unsupported when raising questions or when he/she wants to try alternative and less invasive and toxic treatments. This is all reinforced by the Judge that is found in the hospital rules and in the staff nurses. The stress that is intensified by the Judges activated all around the patient often further undermines the patient’s immune system and blocks the natural healing process. Dealing with the pressures of so many Judges drains the patient’s energy, often leading to a decision to give up and submit to the relentless pressure of the Judge – one’s own Judge and the Judge in the medical professionals and in the family. This formidable alliance is very dangerous for the patient’s health.
The nature of the Judge is that it operates at the same developmental level as an 8 to 10 year-old child. The Judge is stubborn and demands to have its own way, no matter what the consequences. It uses all kinds of manipulations and ploys to get its way and to prove that it is always right. It demands total submission and compliance from the patient. It always presents its viewpoint (diagnosis and treatment plan) as absolutely correct and its opinion is not to be questioned or challenged.
For the patient, under these Judge-dominated conditions, it is a real challenge to find her/his inner source of strength and personal power. Without a connection to one’s own inner source of strength and personal power (Warrior energy), it becomes almost impossible for the patient to stand up to such a formidable alliance of the Judges in the doctor, nurses, hospital, spouse, and family. For many patients, submission and compliance seems like the only way out of the health/disease dilemma. If the attending doctor has an active Judge psychologically in dealing with the patient, the added stress could worsen the patient’s condition. Unfortunately, the Judge has become a dominant psychological entity in the delivery of health/disease care services. These services include mental health as well as physical medicine. The presence of the Judge in our health/disease care system often makes it very dysfunctional and adds greatly to the costs for patients.
The Judge always involves survival. The Judge thrives on stress. The Judge feeds off of our own anger and our fear. The Judge inflates itself from the energy that is generated by our own stress and it weakens our immune system. The Judge has no energy of its own. Instead, it threatens us and sucks our own energy in order to keep itself inflated like a balloon. Therefore, the Judge is really an illusion of power and strength. When a person is aware of the Judge and knows that it is an illusion, then, by connecting with her/his own spirit and inner personal power, it is possible to “shrink” the Judge. When this occurs, there is a tremendous sense of relief with greatly reduced inner stress and enhanced immunity. The person also feels a greater sense of personal empowerment. This is why it is so important to be able to connect with one’s own spirit and inner personal power when there is an injury or disease with which to contend. Becoming aware of the Judge within ourselves and in those around us is vital for maintaining our health, vitality, personal power, and spirit.
The book “Shrinking the Judge: Freeing the Inner Child” is available on amazon.com or directly from the Malters: 800 882-3015 or rickmind@cableone.net. The Malters also offer seminars and workshops on the Judge. Personal phone consultations are also available.