Making Sense of Error: A View of the Origins and Treatment of Perfectionism
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TL;DR
A clinical vignette illustrates a contemporary psychodynamic approach used to answer the questions of its developmental history and its meaning in lived experience and a therapeutic approach to overcome perfectionism and its burdensome effects on individuals and intimate relationships.
Abstract
Research on perfectionism has generally left unanswered the questions of its developmental history and its meaning in lived experience. A clinical vignette illustrates a contemporary psychodynamic approach used to answer these questions and a therapeutic approach used to overcome perfectionism and its burdensome effects on individuals and intimate relationships. Theoretical developments in contemporary relational psychology, along with the author's clinical experience as a psychotherapist and parent educator, provide source material. Perfectionism is understood as a desire for perfection, a fear of imperfection, the equating of error to personal defectiveness, and the emotional conviction that perfection is the route to personal acceptability.