Perfectionism contains the idea that there is a correct way to approach accomplishing a goal, as well as an idea of what the goal itself should look like. A perfectionist is not the one who works well and with quality, but the one who loses the perspective of the whole of a task by focusing on the details. Such an approach can lead to giving up, because due to STRICT RULES and EXCESSIVE ANALYSIS, the task seems too difficult and unsolvable. That's why "perfectionists" are those whose self-criticism drags them away from creating into delaying and questioning their abilities, ways of doing what they want, and questioning their actions.

The problem of perfectionism, according to Transactional Analysis , is connected with the structure of the Ego state, the Parent, in which there are high and strict demands placed on the person himself. Such content can exist under the influence of the environment, culture and circumstances in which a person grew up. Sometimes an individual can even clearly remember from his childhood a person who was strict in making demands and showed this through a negative emotional reaction (eg anger, insult, disappointment). When such criteria and the observed emotional reaction are internalized, the way the other behaved sometimes becomes the way of treating oneself. Someone with a perfectionist approach has a part of their personality that seems like an inadequately strict guardian.

The solution to this problem does not lie in reckoning with those who treated the individual harshly many years ago. Excessive demands that frustrate the creative part of the personality exist at the level of the internal dynamics of the personality. Being an adult in a psychological sense means accepting responsibility for how we treat ourselves. If, in a very concise way, we try to present two constructive ways of solving the dilemma surrounding the term perfect, it would be:

- That the criterion of perfect should not be narrowly defined, rigid and strict, but realistic and optimal, such that it allows for deviations. The idea that what is perfect and ideal can manifest in different ways. Perfection as something that is not a uniform concept. A more flexible approach to defining perfection can be useful in a way that does not inhibit creativity in work and spontaneity in behavior with others;

- To accept that perfect, something that represents an absolute criterion, does not exist in reality. That every phenomenon, behavior and action can have its positive and negative sides, depending on the way of observation.


Perfectionism does not mean that a person does things in an ideal way, but that he postpones realization and gives up what he wants to do because of the fear that things will not be done in a perfect way.