cover image The Perfectionist Predicament: How to Stop Driving Yourself and Others Crazy

The Perfectionist Predicament: How to Stop Driving Yourself and Others Crazy

Miriam Elliott. William Morrow & Company, $19 (299pp) ISBN 978-0-688-09045-6

Chronic dissatisfaction with oneself and others haunts perfectionists, whose obsessive behavior also visits misery on their employees or colleagues, family and friends, according to psychologists Elliott, a University of North Carolina professor, and Meltsner ( ISD: Inhibited Sexual Desire ). Contrasting seekers of excellence with perfectionists, the authors trace the latter group's compulsions to childhood roots and explain how their performance, self-image, relationships and morality are affected. The authors include self-tests, 14 reasons to ``stop trying so hard'' and other features typical of ``addiction'' self-help books. However, they also offer sensible advice to job-hunters whose excessive attention to form and detail may be self-defeating. Useful, too, are their recommendations that perfectionists attempt therapy and attend support groups, and their ``survival strategies'' for those who live or work with them. Author tour. (Aug.)