The Burden of Achievement Culture

In job interviews and in life, perfectionism is often seen as a selling point – an asset disguised as a flaw. But as psychologists have found rising rates of perfectionism in the United States and around the world in recent decades, they’ve begun to recognize the toll that the drive to be perfect can take on people’s mental health and well-being. Thomas Curran, PhD, author of “The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough,” talks about different types of perfectionism, why more and more of us feel the need to push ourselves to perfection, and what can we do – as individuals, as parents and as a society – to recognize that often, ‘good’ is good enough.

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