Evil Deeds

A Forensic Psychologist on Anger, Madness and Destructive Behavior

Dr. Stephen Diamond is a clinical and forensic psychologist in LA and the author of Anger, Madness, and the Daimonic: The Psychological Genesis of Violence, Evil, and Creativity. See full bio

June 28, 2008, Therapy

Secrets of Psychotherapy (Part 5) : In Praise of Perfectionism

In praise of perfectionism.

Neurotic, negative or pathological perfectionism can undoubtedly impede creativity and competence. Placing unrealistic expectations and demands on one's own work or that of others is fraught with problems ranging from resentment, shame and erosion of self-esteem, to blocked creativity due to dread of producing anything less than perfect. Or of appearing imperfect, as in the case of social phobia, compulsive seekers of cosmetic surgery, and sufferers of body dysmorphic disorder or anorexia and bulimia nervosa. Seeking the perfect relationship or job is similarly doomed to disappointment. Pathological perfectionism prevents people from enjoying and savoring life as it is, seeking instead to constantly control their environment in an attempt to make everything perfect. But it is a perfectly imperfect world in which we live, inhabited by imperfect beings. In such self-defeating cases, competent psychotherapy can be helpful in accepting and embracing imperfection in oneself and others. (See my previous post.)

Creativity can be conceived of as a process of trying to perfectly render some compelling inner vision, emotion or concept. Perfectionism, when not taken to neurotic extremes, acknowledges the unavoidability of imperfection, while at the same time heroically striving toward perfection nonetheless. Non-pathological or positive perfectionism accepts its human limitations and the ultimate impossibility of attaining or sustaining perfection. What the healthy or constructive perfectionist does is labor as passionately, obsessively and perfectionistically as possible on a project, knowing and accepting all the while that he or she is destined to fall short in realizing the vision. But that despite the inevitability of failure, something good, something positive, something new, something worthwhile, something meaningful can come of the effort. And, for the positive perfectionist, this makes the frustrating, arduous, troublesome and oftimes tedious journey toward almost certain defeat a worthwhile and triumphant failure.