Steve Andreas > Articles > Escaping the “Black Hole” of Judgement

When Judgement is Useful

“Every behavior is useful in some context” is a fundamental presupposition in NLP, and there is one kind of context in which judgements are functional—in a situation of real and immediate danger, in which someone has to make a life-or-death decision very quickly. When the stakes are high, it is useful not to take the time to carefully evaluate a situation and come to a conclusion—by that time it might be too late. There is no time to think through all the nuances of what is happening; there is only the urgent need to act swiftly and decisively, and respond with a simple preset decision.

Because of this usefulness, whenever someone feels threatened, they will tend to respond with judgement. And because of this association, whenever someone judges, we can safely assume that they feel threatened in some way.