A new book publishing next month co-authored by York University Professor Gordon Flett will examine perfectionism – how it develops, its underlying mechanisms and psychological costs, and how to target it effectively in psychotherapy.
The book, Perfectionism: A Relational Approach to Conceptualization, Assessment, and Treatment is co-authored by Paul L. Hewitt and Samuel F. Mikail and will be released on March 27 by Guilford Press.
Flett is a professor in the Department of Psychology (Faculty of Health), Canada Research Chair in Personality and Health, and director of LaMarsh Centre for Child and Youth Research.
Grounded in decades of influential research, the authors describe how perfectionist tendencies, rooted in early relational and developmental experiences, make people vulnerable to a wide range of clinical problems. They present an integrative treatment approach and demonstrate ways to tailor interventions to the needs of individual clients, and a group treatment model is also detailed.
State-of-the-art assessment tools are discussed, and provided at the companion website. Throughout the book, vivid clinical illustrations make the core ideas and techniques concrete.
“The authors have made enormous contributions to our understanding of perfectionism. This definitive volume lays out their transdiagnostic model of perfectionistic behavior and how to treat it. The best and most comprehensive volume on perfectionism, this is a ‘must read’ for scholars and clinicians who study and treat all forms of psychopathology,” said Randy O. Frost, PhD, Smith College.