New Frontiers in the Treatment of Perfectionism

Perfectionism can present as a clinical problem in its own right or it can interfere with the successful treatment of Axis I disorders. In the past 15 years, a cognitive behavioral analysis of "clinical perfectionism" has been proposed. This approach and the measurement of the construct of clinical perfectionism have proved controversial. Nevertheless, the approach has experimental support and clinical utility; the derived treatment has been shown to lead to significant improvement on both measures of perfectionism and Axis I disorders. The cognitive behavioral intervention for perfectionism has been evaluated in a range of formats (group, individual, face-to-face, and online) and all show promise. Further work is required to address clinically important questions such as when to treat clinical perfectionism if it occurs in the context of single and multiple Axis I disorders.