Psychological Disability Among Judges and Other Professionals Some Causes and Cures

• NCJ Number: 86732
• Journal: Judicature Volume: 66 Issue: 5 Dated: (November 1982) Pages: 184-193
• Author(s): B G Suran
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 10 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Professional organizations of judges, attorneys, physicians, and psychologists have recently found it necessary to pay increasing attention to problems of disability, impairment, and psychological distress among their members.

Abstract

Judges share with doctors and other achieving professionals characteristics and experiences that can result in psychological disability. An understanding of these phenomena makes possible effective prevention and intervention programs. Professionals in general are bound together by two major phenomena: they typically initiate the pursuit of their professional careers with a high degree of achievement motivation, and their early adult lives are marked by the presence of an extended apprenticeship period during which their skills incubate before they are put into use and become fully accredited. As a result of these phenomena, psychological problems can occur. Three major issues that crimicians regularly encounter in distressed professionals who enter psychotherapy include the over-developed capacity to defer gratification, the focus on goals outside of oneself as a person, and the emphasis on controlling the events and environment in which one lives. As the case history of one judge reveals, treatment is often multifaceted in approach. Alcoholism, depression, and marital dysfunction were addressed simultaneously in the therapy plan. The single most important factor in the treatment of psychological disability among achieving professionals is early, timely, and appropriate intervention. Specific recommendations to facilitate this goal include a public information campaign that shapes attitudes about psychological disability within the profession, provision for treatment prior to disciplinary action, and the institutionalization of mental health liaisons and consultation services for every case of judicial disability involving psychological problems. Five footnotes are provided.