Pursuing Perfection Won't Silence Your Inner Critic
Psychology Today | 01.07.2026 00:59Perfectionism is the pursuit of a perfect environment and/or a perfect self in order to have perfect thoughts about oneself. Perfectionism and obsessiveness, more broadly, are defenses aimed at managing self-doubt. At their core is a mind plagued by extremely negative thinking about one’s essential self. Self-doubt can manifest with thoughts like “Am I bad?” “Am I ugly?” “Am I unlovable?” And the perfectionist often finds a plethora of purportedly good reasons to answer yes.
