Perfect: The enemy of good? A psychotherapeutic exploration of perfectionism
Authors
Murphy, Emma
Issue Date
2026.13.01
Degree
Counselling and Psychotherapy - 10788/2210
Publisher
Dublin Business School
Rights holder
Rights
Open Access
Abstract
This study focuses on the concept of perfectionism from a psychotherapeutic perspective, examining its potential origins, its impact on mental health, and the opportunities and challenges presented by psychotherapeutic treatment. Perfectionism is a multidimensional construct, with both adaptive and maladaptive features. This paper focuses on the latter aspects (such as basing one’s self-worth on achievements and a perceived discrepancy between excessively high standards and performance), and the extensive evidence to support the ‘maladaptive’ perfectionists’ vulnerability to psychopathologies, including eating disorders, depression and anxiety. The study explores the roots of perfectionism through the lens of early relationships, particularly the influence of attachment and asynchrony, as well as transgenerational transmission of perfectionistic cognitions and characteristics. This focus is also applied to an exploration of psychotherapeutic treatment modalities, including dynamic-relational, cognitive and humanistic approaches, with reference to their impact on the roots of perfectionism. While theoretical models do exist, there is a lack of empirical data on effective treatment modalities, and conflict between the dynamic-relational and cognitive approaches. Ultimately, it has been argued that a psychotherapeutic understanding of perfectionism would benefit from an integrated perspective, given the impact of both relational underpinnings and resulting cognitions on the development of the condition.