Making sense of error: a view of the origins and treatment of perfectionism.
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.
Greenspon Associates, P.A. Minneapolis, MN 55416-0325, USA. tsg@greensponassociates.com
Thomas S
TS
Greenspon
D000124:Achievement; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D003469:Culture; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D004328:Drive; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008388:Marital Therapy; D009769:Object Attachment; D010553:Personality Development; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D012649:Self Concept