The Healthy Perfectionist

Book excerpt: Perfectionism, as routinely used and perpetuated by droves of psychologists and relevant medical specialists, connotes obsession with certain repetitive thoughts and behaviours extreme of the average. What we have in The Healthy Perfectionist is the shedding of light on the reality of perfectionism as routine modes of making sense of and tackling whichever circumstances confronting any person, to achieve a better outcome or state of affairs. In this well-crafted eight-chaptered book, the author, using impressive and comprehensive comparative data and historical evidence, incisively and systematically shows how perfectionism-the urge and efforts directed at achieving more effective methods and outcomes - is grown and modified with coping mechanisms in the family, in schools, at the workplace, in public sector institutions, roles and politics, in healthcare, in social media processes and usage, and religious advocacy and practices. This book should be found very useful by wide-ranging persons, especially parents, students, teachers, public servants, trade unionists, HRM and counselling professionals, researchers in the social sciences and occupational, social and medical therapists, - Professor Dafe Otobo, DPhil (Oxford), Lagos, Nigeria.