Our personal history influences our world view (mostly in ways that are not conscious) and our world view influences our judgment. Our values, personality, aesthethics etc create the lens through which we see and therefore interpret the world. If my narcissistic friend who's struggling with their history of early abuse (without realising that she is) says _"this song is rather depressing, isn't it?"_, I will take their words together with everything that I know about her into account when hearing her evaluation of that song. I will know that her evaluation of that song is her interpretation of that song. The music isn't depressing, but the fact that my friend finds it so points to something interesting about my friend. The fact that all evaluation is interpretation is important to remember when considering any critical work, such as book reviews, art reviews, any comment on someone else's work, any comment presenting as "evaluation". Any "official" sounding evaluation. Like in school, or at work. Any sort of formal-presenting environment. Any such comment, no matter how stern its presentation, is an "interpretation" through a _particular_ lens. It's important to remember, because it's often the case that this sort of work is presented as cold evaluation when in fact it's hot interpretation. Judge it as such. The extremist character of my view here, that I acknowledge, lies in the word "ALL". I think ALL of it is interpretation. - -- to give some examples here to show my extremism. Related _"most research is me-search"_ (Beatrice Beebe, clinical psychologist & researcher at Columbia University, quoted by Bessel van der Kolk in his book "The Body Keeps the Score")