When the Unhealed Are in Charge: A Reflection on Power Without Accountability

There is a quiet violence that happens when people in positions of authority have not reconciled their own inner chaos. They bring their wounds into the courtroom, the boardroom, the therapy session, the psychiatric hold. And because they’ve never faced the mirror, they weaponize the badge, the robe, the credentials—dragging with them the emotional baggage they’ve never dealt with and a lifetime of hardened beliefs that leave little room for listening. No longer neutral or objective, as we are led to believe, they become a frothing tangle of the unexamined and unintegrated beliefs and emotions—often projected onto the very people they are tasked to serve.

What happens when a judge has never reconciled their own story of control or violation? When a psychiatrist has buried their pain under credentials, never daring to feel the depths of their own grief, shame, or rage? When a lawyer has used bravado to mask addiction, denial, or deep self-loathing? They become dangerous—not because they are villains in the traditional sense, but because they have made power a substitute for healing. And power without healing is a mask for harm.

We pretend the system is objective. That rulings are neutral. That diagnoses are clinical. That laws are applied evenly. But the truth is far messier. Behind every decision is a person. And if that person is still running from their own shadows, then their judgments—whether legal, psychiatric, or spiritual—carry the sharp edge of projection.

I have lived this. I have been on the receiving end of such unreconciled power. I have felt the blade of someone else's unresolved story written into mine. I have seen how systems shield those in power—how oversight is often just theater, and accountability a rare performance.

No amount of training or professional polish can substitute for the hard, soul-rending work of facing your own darkness. If that work isn’t done, power corrupts by default. And the cost is incalculable. The cost is me. And those like me. The ones gaslit, misdiagnosed, disbelieved, imprisoned—ruled against, not for truth or justice, but because the system must protect its own. Because in their position of power, they displaced their hatred and biases, projected family wounds, shielded corrupt colleagues, and defended the institutions that insulate them from consequence—their loyalty to the guild always intact. And we were the collateral damage.

We cannot talk about justice without talking about the emotional and spiritual maturity of those who uphold it. We cannot talk about healing without confronting the reality that many “healers” are unhealed. And we cannot talk about truth while entire systems are structured to protect the image of authority rather than its integrity.

This is the quiet rot at the core of so many institutions.
And it festers in silence—until someone speaks.

I am speaking. And I know I am not the only one.

Journal Prompt:
Where in your life have you been harmed by someone in authority who projected their wounds or displaced their unresolved emotions onto you? How did it shape your relationship to trust, truth, or self-worth?

Ritual for Reclaiming Power:
Light a candle and speak aloud the moments you were silenced or blamed for another’s projection or protection of power. Say: “I return what is not mine. I reclaim what is. I now see with the eyes of truth.”
Breathe. Release. And ask your heart what still needs to be reconciled.