Henry Irving as King Lear. Photo: By Bernard Partridge (1892).

‘The judging mind cuts the hand that uses it.’

Coming to judgement: Tony D’Souza investigates a ‘fearful thing’

‘The judging mind cuts the hand that uses it.’

by Tony D’Souza 20th February 2026

The judging mind is a fearful thing. Whenever it operates, it creates difference. Sometimes a ‘better than’ and sometimes a ‘worse than’, but always an ‘other than’. This is judgement’s attraction and its horror, its satisfaction and its worst error. Whenever it is used, it puffs up the ego, making the owner of the judging mind feel bigger, better. At other times, it can do the opposite and make them feel smaller or ‘less than’ – to the ego, the difference is irrelevant. The result is superiority or inferiority, but the effect is always the same: otherness. 

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