Our dangerous obsession with perfectionism is getting worse

“I’m a perfectionist” is a personality flaw that most people are happy to self-identify with. And for good reason—being a perfectionist implies working hard and never settling, qualities that are celebrated in our achievement and success-oriented society. While a person’s quest for perfection is usually made in the well-intentioned pursuit of improvement and advancement, perfectionism is often a never-ending summit, a cycle of self defeat in the face of impossible standards.

Thomas Curran is a social and personality psychologist who studies perfectionism and the impact it has on people, especially teens and young adults. In his research, Thomas has found that rates of perfectionism have risen rapidly over the past 25 years, during which time we’ve also seen increasing rates of mental illness among young people. Watch Thomas’s 2018 TEDMED Talk to learn how his research into perfectionism is raising important questions about whether society’s high standards are actually benefiting young people, or harming them.