What Makes Perfectionism Pathological   What makes perfectionism pathological? It is the false value-judgment the perfectionist makes that achievement is a good, almost the supreme good. This excerpt from the Wikipedia article on Perfectionism, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfectionism (psychology) frames the situation nicely: Therapists attempt to tackle the negative thinking that surrounds perfectionism, in particular the "all-or-nothing" thinking where the client believes that an achievement is either perfect or useless. They encourage clients to set realistic goals and to face their fear of failure. This "all or nothing" thinking has been likened to a parable known as the "South Indian Monkey Trap." This parable is reputed to have been adapted by villagers in Southeast Asia. Upon trying to tackle their increasing population of monkeys, villagers had placed rice grains inside the hollows of coconuts which were tethered to a chain. The desired result was that the monkeys would then trap themselves, and the villagers would then dispose of the monkeys. 'In essence, the monkeys would grab the grains of rice, and upon trying to remove their hand from the coconut hole, the monkeys would subsequently become trapped by their own fist. Since the hole was just big enough so that the monkey could put his hand in, and too small for his fist to come out after grabbing the rice, the monkeys ended up trapping themselves. Rather than letting the grains of rice go and escaping, they chose to retain the rice at their own peril.' The moral of the story, as it pertains to perfectionists, is that, like the monkey, the perfectionist must make a choice of importance. Either the perfectionist rigidly holds on to what he values, or his own desire for those values become his ruin. Perfectionists are then encouraged to rethink their own values and decide whether to be trapped by them or be freed. Compare Beck's Cognitive Therapy of Personality Disorders

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