|
Abstract
|
Perfectionists are people who not only want to be perfect; they also need to seem perfect. Several decades of global research on perfectionism have identified a host of worrisome realities. First, meta‐analytic evidence indicates that perfectionism is on the rise among young people 1 . Second, perfectionism is associated with mental health problems, but also with physical health issues and early mortality 2 . Third, perfectionism is associated with heightened risk for suicide 3 , as illustrated by the results of a comprehensive meta‐analysis 3 .
The perfectionistic person who is experiencing psychological pain is at a heightened suicide risk due to a confluence of correlated attributes and tendencies 4 . These include a proclivity to hide psychache behind a perfect front while also experiencing elevated hopelessness 5 ; a tendency to all‐or‐none views and cognitive rumination; an unwillingness or inability to seek help; and a degree of planfulness that can turn suicidal urges and plans into completed suicides. Here the voracious information seeking of perfectionists may extend to accessing information on the Internet that enables them to perfect their suicide plans. The risk is especially high for the perfectionist who has attempted suicide and remains suicidal while grappling with the humiliation of having engaged in a failed attempt.
The role of perfectionism in suicide is to some extent in the public consciousness. We are all aware of the deaths of highly perfectionistic luminaries such as V. Woolf, S. Plath and E. Hemingway. Public awareness was heightened further when S. Blatt published his seminal paper on the destructiveness of perfectionism, detailing the lives and demises of three well‐known highly self‐critical perfectionists 6 . We can add the recent attention given to the suicides of famous people such as director T. Scott in 2012 and fashion designer L'Wren Scott in 2014, as well as highly publicized public inquests investigating the suicides of perfectionists such as N. Worrall and C. Dragun. Unfortunately, clinical case examples of deceased perfectionists continue to mount, including the deaths of people such as K. Spade, M. Evans and L. Breen (the emergency room physician who died as stressors mounted during the COVID‐19 pandemic). Sadly, there is also no shortage of deaths due to suicide among perfectionistic adolescents 7 .
Constant additions to the above list are disconcerting, but just as troubling is the lack of evidence that research knowledge and public awareness of the role of perfectionism in suicide are being reflected in practice. Our informal survey of key organizations which provide lists of acknowledged suicide risk factors (e.g., the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) found little mention of the role of personality factors in general, and perfectionism in particular. More progress is needed immediately, because it is not hyperbole to state that many lives are in the balance. Education, training and heightened awareness are urgently needed...
Language: en |