A developing hypothesis bouncing around inside my cranium might provide reasons why the Higher Criticism causes mental hernia for the WTS.
The WTS reads meaning into the text (eisegesis) rather than extracting meaning from it (exegesis). The WTS starts with a concluding statement and then claims scriptural statements without consideration of due context as support for their statement.
From Wikipedia:
Eisegesis is the process of misinterpreting a text or portion of text in such a way that it introduces one's own presuppositions, agendas, and/or biases into and onto the text. The act is often used to "prove" a pre-held point of concern to the reader and to provide him or her with confirmation bias in accordance with his or her pre-held agenda. ... Eisegesis occurs when a reader imposes his or her interpretation into and onto the text.
Exegesis draws out the meaning from a text in accordance with the context and discoverable meaning of its author. As a result, exegesis tends to be objective when employed effectively while eisegesis is regarded as highly subjective.
Higher Criticism seeks to understand the culture that produced a piece of Scripture. It says that the material refers to that community. The WTS, however says Scriptures actually refer to the WTS and to its times. For example, when Jesus says, “this generation” the writer is referring to the generation that was living at that time but the WTS sees these words as speaking of people living during the 20th and 21st centuries. In another example: when ancient Israel/Judah was righteous before God, the WTS says they were symbols of the WTS but when these same people were evil they symbolise modern Christendom. This methodology is heightened in the WTS’s use of the apocalyptic literature.
My hypothesis, and it requires testing, includes the thought that while Higher Criticism seeks to climb into the minds of the cultures that produced a writing, that the WTS employs Pesher.
The DSS community (also an end-times community) employed pesher, in which secret meanings were revealed to and through The Teacher: “Their aim is to read historical and eschatological events into the biblical prophecies, understanding them as describing their own sect's situation on the verge of the eschaton.” ( http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0016_0_15650.html )
I see pesher as diametrically opposed to the concepts of Biblical study and analysis that is promoted by Higher Criticism, Lower Criticism, etc.
Doug