Too Perfect: When Being in Control Gets Out of Control

In this practical, science-based guide to navigating the pitfalls of perfectionism, an esteemed psychiatrist offers comprehensive techniques for recognizing and overcoming obsessive behaviors.

“Whether you know someone who’s ‘too perfect’ or suspect it of yourself, this book will help.”—San Diego magazine

How much is too much? For many of us, perfectionism can bring life’s most desired rewards. But when the obsessive need for perfection and control gets in the way of our professional and emotional lives, the cost becomes too high. Although many of us appear cool and confident on the outside, inside we are in emotional turmoil, trying to satisfy everyone, attempting to direct the future, and feeling that we are failing.

In Too Perfect, Dr. Allan Mallinger draws on twenty years of research and observations from his private practice to show how perfectionism can sap energy, complicate even the simplest decisions, and take the enjoyment out of life. For workaholics or neat freaks, for anyone who fears change or making mistakes, needs rigid rules, is excessively frugal or obstinate, Too Perfect offers revealing self-tests, fascinating case histories, and practical strategies to help us overcome obsessiveness and reclaim our right to happiness.

Jeannette Dewyze is a freelance journalist. She was a staff writer for the San Diego Reader for 30 years. She cowrote Too Perfect: When Being in Control Gets Out of Control with Allan Mallinger, M.D.

Allan Mallinger is a practicing psychiatrist in San Diego, California, and the coauthor of Too Perfect: When Being in Control Gets Out of Control.