The Economist The Perfectionism Trap: Why Our Obsession With Being Flawless Is Holding Us Back

The Economist The Perfectionism Trap is a widely cited essay published in 1843 Magazine, The Economist’s culture and lifestyle publication, written by British psychoanalyst and author Josh Cohen. The piece asks a question that millions of readers immediately recognized as their own: why have we become so deeply dissatisfied with being ordinary?

Cohen argues that modern life bombards people with relentless pressure to be happier, fitter, wealthier, and more accomplished. Yet this constant striving rarely produces satisfaction. Instead, it fuels a self reinforcing cycle of anxiety, harsh self criticism, and emotional exhaustion. The essay went viral because it names a feeling most people experience but rarely put into words: the persistent, nagging sense that who you are and what you have achieved is never quite enough.

Who Wrote The Perfectionism Trap and Why Does It Matter?

Josh Cohen is a Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society and served as Professor of Modern Literary Theory at Goldsmiths, University of London until 2024. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His books include Not Working: Why We Have to Stop (2019) and Losers (2021), both of which explore society’s relationship with achievement and failure.

What makes Cohen’s perspective unique is his dual expertise. He combines literary criticism with over two decades of clinical psychoanalytic practice. Rather than offering shallow advice to “stop overthinking,” Cohen traces the psychological architecture of perfectionism back to early childhood. He explains how the “ideal self,” originally formed through a parent’s admiring gaze, gradually transforms into a punishing internal voice that demands flawless performance at every turn.

This clinical depth is what separates The Economist’s perfectionism trap essay from standard self help content. Cohen does not treat perfectionism as a bad habit to break. He treats it as a deeply rooted psychological structure that requires genuine understanding before it can be loosened.

The Research Behind Rising Perfectionism

Cohen’s essay is grounded in rigorous academic research, not just clinical anecdotes. He draws on a landmark 2017 meta analysis by psychologists Thomas Curran of the London School of Economics and Andrew Hill of York St John University. Their study was published in the American Psychological Association’s journal Psychological Bulletin.

The research team analyzed data from over 41,000 college students across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, spanning the years 1989 to 2016. Their findings revealed a 10 percent increase in self directed perfectionism, a 32 percent increase in socially prescribed perfectionism, and a 16 percent increase in other oriented perfectionism over the study period.

The Three Dimensions of Perfectionism

Psychologists Paul Hewitt and Gordon Flett originally identified three distinct types of perfectionism. Understanding each one is essential to grasping why the trap is so difficult to escape.

Type	Definition	Real World Example
Self oriented perfectionism	Imposing impossibly high standards on yourself and punishing yourself for falling short	Rewriting an email twelve times before sending it, then still feeling it was not good enough
Socially prescribed perfectionism	Believing that other people, such as employers, parents, or peers, expect you to be perfect	Feeling that one poor performance review will cause everyone to see you as incompetent
Other oriented perfectionism	Placing unrealistic standards on the people around you	Becoming intensely frustrated when a colleague’s work does not meet your personal standard of excellence

According to co author Andrew Hill, the increase in perfectionism may be contributing to the psychological health struggles of students, who now report higher levels of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts compared to a decade earlier.

Curran later expanded his research into the 2023 book The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough, published by Scribner. Named one of Bloomberg’s Best Books of 2023, the book explores how the pursuit of perfection becomes a dangerous obsession leading to burnout and depression.

The Economist Essay vs. Thomas Curran’s Book

Searchers sometimes confuse Cohen’s essay with Curran’s book since both address perfectionism as a cultural trap. Here is how they differ:

Feature	The Economist Essay (Cohen, 2021)	The Perfection Trap Book (Curran, 2023)
Author	Josh Cohen, psychoanalyst	Thomas Curran, psychology professor at LSE
Format	Long form magazine essay	Full length book (288 pages)
Primary lens	Psychoanalytic and cultural	Research driven and sociological
Core argument	Perfectionism is rooted in childhood psychological development	Perfectionism is amplified by economic systems and cultural norms
Key strength	Clinical depth from patient case studies	Extensive statistical evidence and policy recommendations

Both works complement each other. Cohen provides the emotional and psychological map of perfectionism, while Curran supplies the statistical evidence and broader societal analysis.

How the Pandemic Exposed the Perfectionism Cycle

One of the most revealing sections of Cohen’s essay describes what happened to his psychoanalysis patients during the pandemic lockdowns of 2020. Initially, many experienced an unexpected wave of relief. Office surveillance disappeared. Workloads dropped. People rediscovered the pleasure of baking, walking, reading, and spending unhurried time with family.

As Cohen recounted, institutions adapted to remote work and many people found a break from constant monitoring, which gave them room to recalibrate priorities and reconnect with simpler pleasures.

But this window of freedom closed quickly. Within approximately six weeks, Cohen noticed the old perfectionist patterns returning with renewed intensity. Patients started competing over who could be more productive while working from home. Exercise routines became punishingly rigid. Supervision of children’s schoolwork turned obsessive.

Cohen explained that the pandemic had only intensified the underlying trend, with social media amplifying the pressure to construct a flawless public image and overcrowded job markets driving young people to extreme lengths to gain a competitive edge.

This pattern, where a brief pause from perfectionism gives way to its aggressive return, is precisely what makes it a trap rather than a simple habit. The cycle self reinforces because the underlying psychological structures remain intact even when external pressure temporarily eases.

The Psychological Roots: Why Perfectionism Feels So Hard to Escape

Perfectionism is far more than a productivity problem. According to Cohen’s analysis in The Economist essay, it is embedded in our earliest psychological development. Psychoanalytic theory identifies two competing forces that every child internalizes during infancy.

The first is the “ideal self,” an image of the perfect person we believe we could become. This image is shaped by the loving, admiring attention of parents or primary caregivers. The second force is the superego, a harsh internal judge that constantly measures our real performance against that idealized standard and finds us falling short.

As we grow, this inner critic does not soften. It intensifies. Teachers, bosses, competitive peers, and the endless highlight reels of social media all amplify the superego’s voice. As Dr. Curran has explained through his research at the London School of Economics, perfectionism connects three dimensions of pressure: people perceive that others demand more of them, they demand more of others, and they demand more of themselves.

This is why telling a perfectionist to “just let it go” rarely accomplishes anything. The drive toward flawlessness is not a conscious surface level decision. It is a deeply embedded psychological pattern that fuses personal worth with performance. When perfectionists fall short, they do not merely feel disappointed. They feel fundamentally broken.

Perfectionism, Burnout, and Mental Health

The relationship between perfectionism and deteriorating mental health is now supported by a substantial body of clinical evidence. Chasing impossibly high standards does not foster sustained excellence. Over time, it produces exhaustion, avoidance, and emotional breakdown.

According to Dr. Thomas Curran, there is considerable evidence showing that perfectionism delivers no meaningful performance advantage while causing genuine harm to many people’s wellbeing.

Research consistently connects perfectionistic tendencies with several serious psychological outcomes:

Chronic anxiety develops because perfectionists are locked in a state of constant vigilance, scanning for potential mistakes and threats to their self image.

Depression deepens when the gap between the ideal self and the actual self begins to feel permanent and unbridgeable.

Eating disorders and body dysmorphia grow worse when physical appearance turns into one more domain where nothing less than perfection feels acceptable. A 2024 study published in BMC Public Health found that focus on self presentation on social media was significantly associated with both perfectionism and disordered eating among adolescents.

Procrastination paradoxically increases because the fear of producing imperfect work makes even starting a task feel overwhelming.

In a review published on the LSE Impact blog, researcher Dr. Marianne E. Etherson noted that Curran’s work details the destructive nature of perfectionism and its established links to anxiety, depression, eating disorder symptoms, self harm, and suicidal ideation.

Perfectionism and Social Media: A Reinforcing Loop

Social media deserves special attention in any discussion of The Economist The Perfectionism Trap. Platforms built around curated images, likes, and follower counts create an environment perfectly designed to trigger and amplify perfectionistic tendencies.

According to Curran’s research reported by the American Psychological Association, raw data suggest that social media use pressures young adults to measure themselves against others, leading to body dissatisfaction and increased social isolation.

Research published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences has found that self critical perfectionism may be a key vulnerability factor for female adolescents who engage in appearance focused social comparison on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. The cycle works like this: users see carefully curated images, compare themselves unfavorably, feel inadequate, and then invest more energy into perfecting their own online personas, which in turn raises the bar for everyone else.

How to Break Free From the Perfectionism Trap

Escaping the perfectionism trap does not require abandoning ambition or embracing carelessness. It requires rebuilding your relationship with effort, failure, and self worth. The following strategies align with the themes both Cohen and Curran explore in their work.

Separate your identity from your output. Your value as a person is not determined by your latest exam result, performance review, or social media engagement. Begin noticing the moments when you confuse “I produced something imperfect” with “I am imperfect.” These are different statements, even though perfectionism trains you to treat them as identical.

Reframe failure as useful data. Every mistake contains information. High performers across creative, scientific, and entrepreneurial fields consistently report that their most significant breakthroughs emerged from extended periods of productive failure. Mistakes are not evidence of inadequacy. They are evidence of effort.

Set “good enough” benchmarks before you start. Before beginning a task, define what a satisfactory result looks like. Commit to stopping when you reach that standard rather than endlessly revising. Perfectionism thrives in open ended situations where there is always one more improvement to make.

Limit your exposure to social comparison triggers. Curate your social media feeds with intention. Remove or silence accounts from your feed that regularly trigger feelings of self doubt or inadequacy. Remind yourself that what you see online is a performance, not a documentary.

Seek professional support when patterns feel stuck. If perfectionism is generating persistent anxiety, depression, or avoidance behaviors, working with a therapist trained in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help restructure the thought patterns that sustain the cycle. Cohen himself emphasizes that psychoanalytic work with his patients often involves slowly loosening the grip of the ideal self, not eliminating ambition but reducing its punitive edge.

Topical Range: Where Perfectionism Connects With Broader Cultural Trends

The perfectionism trap does not exist in a vacuum. It intersects with several major cultural, economic, and psychological conversations shaping life right now.

Hustle culture and toxic productivity in workplaces reward those who appear to work the hardest and longest, reinforcing the belief that rest equals laziness.

The Gen Z and millennial mental health crisis is partly driven by rising perfectionism, with younger generations reporting record levels of anxiety, depression, and burnout according to multiple public health surveys.

Social media’s distortion of self image creates a feedback loop where curated perfection online raises standards for everyone, contributing to body dissatisfaction, disordered eating, and chronic comparison.

The burnout epidemic across professional industries reflects what happens when perfectionist standards become embedded in organizational culture, not just individual psychology.

Achievement focused parenting styles that prioritize grades, extracurricular accolades, and college admissions over emotional resilience can plant the seeds of perfectionism in children before they even enter the workforce.

Perfectionism vs. healthy high standards remains a widely searched question. The critical distinction is this: healthy striving allows for mistakes and focuses on growth, while perfectionism ties self worth to flawless outcomes and responds to failure with shame rather than learning.

Understanding these connections helps explain why Cohen’s essay in The Economist and Curran’s research continue to generate widespread discussion years after their original publication.

Conclusion: Letting Go of Flawlessness Is Not Giving Up

The Economist The Perfectionism Trap endures as one of the most thought provoking essays on modern psychological life because it refuses to offer quick fixes. Josh Cohen does not pretend that perfectionism can be dissolved with a motivational quote or a morning routine change. He reveals it as a deeply human struggle, wired into the way we learn to see ourselves from our earliest moments of consciousness.

The research from Thomas Curran, Andrew Hill, and a growing body of global studies confirms that this struggle is intensifying across generations. Economic competition, social media saturation, and cultural messaging that equates personal worth with visible achievement are all accelerating the trend.

Recognizing the trap is the essential first step toward loosening its grip. You do not need to be extraordinary to live a purposeful life. Accepting imperfection is not settling for less. It is choosing to invest your energy in what actually matters instead of endlessly chasing an illusion.

If this article helped you see perfectionism from a new angle, share it with someone who might be caught in the same cycle. And leave a comment below: what is one area of your life where you have started to let go of impossible standards?