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The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control: A Path to Peace and Power Hardcover – January 17, 2023
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Selected as Editor's Pick in Amazon's Best Books of 2023
From psychotherapist Katherine Morgan Schafler, an invitation to every “recovering perfectionist” to challenge the way they look at perfectionism, and the way they look at themselves.
We’ve been looking at perfectionism all wrong. As psychotherapist and former on-site therapist at Google Katherine Morgan Schafler argues in The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control, you don’t have to stop being a perfectionist to be healthy. For women who are sick of being given the generic advice to “find balance,” a new approach has arrived.
Which of the five types of perfectionist are you? Classic, intense, Parisian, messy, or procrastinator? As you identify your unique perfectionist profile, you'll learn how to manage each form of perfectionism to work for you, not against you. Beyond managing it, you'll learn how to embrace and even enjoy your perfectionism. Yes, enjoy!
Full of stories and brimming with humor, empathy, and depth, this book is a love letter to the ambitious, high achieving, full-of-life clients who filled the author’s private practice, and who changed her life. It’s a clarion call for all women to dare to want more without feeling greedy or ungrateful. Ultimately, this book will show you how to make the single greatest trade you’ll ever make in your life, which is to exchange superficial control for real power.
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPortfolio
- Publication dateJanuary 17, 2023
- Dimensions6.2 x 1.2 x 9.3 inches
- ISBN-10059332952X
- ISBN-13978-0593329528
The Amazon Book Review
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Are you – gasp – an ambitious perfectionist? Have you tried and failed to find that elusive sense of “balance” we’re all meant to seek? If you answered yes to these questions, this is the book you must read. Morgan Schafler has written the definitive guide for anyone who’s ready to walk a crucial pathway: from the appearance of control, to the possession of a quiet power.”
--Susan Cain, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Bittersweet and Quiet
“From an emerging thought leader, an irresistible invitation to reclaim your natural state of wholeness, your joy and your life."
--Deepak Chopra, New York Times bestselling author of Abundance
"A valuable, much-needed perspective that gives you permission to be more in a world that's telling you to be less.”
--Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
"Morgan Schafler lays bare provocative new insights into how "perfectionism" is often just code for "women excelling too much," and identifies the strategies and mindset every high-achieving woman needs to quell her inner critic and embrace her true talents."
--Holly Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of Quit Like a Woman
"An accessible, actionable guide for how to aim high without overthinking or punishing yourself along the way. This book is a must-read for anxious achievers who want to remain ambitious but could operate with a bit more self-compassion."
--Liz Fosslien, coauthor and illustrator of the bestselling books Big Feelings and No Hard Feelings
"A thoroughly original approach to this important topic. Grounded in research, the book uses stories from the author’s years as a therapist to illustrate vividly that perfectionism is a phenomenon, not a disorder, and that it can be managed to increase one’s power and joy. How I wish this book had been available years ago—it could have changed my life! Let it change yours."
--Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D., author, cultural theorist, feminist activist
"I love a book that starts by normalizing the reader's current experience. We don't need to be fixed, we just need a gentle guide to show us how to work with our unique personalities. This book would be my first recommendation to anyone struggling with perfectionism."
--KC Davis, author of How to Keep House While Drowning
“Combining vivid storytelling, rigorous research, and deep analysis, Morgan Schafler provides a practical guide that can help you learn, thrive, and flourish.”
--Tal Ben-Shahar, New York Times bestselling author of Happier
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Expect to Be Graded on This
The Five Types of Perfectionists
When an inner situation is not made
conscious, it happens outside as fate.
C. G. Jung
A procrastinator perfectionist would experience immense difficulty writing this sentence because it comes at the beginning of a book about perfectionism and, accordingly, needs to be perfect (and there's no better first sentence than the one a procrastinator perfectionist imagines in her head but never actually writes down).
A classic perfectionist writes the first sentence, hates it, tries her best to forget it ever existed, but is inevitably haunted by it for a minimum of eight years.
An intense perfectionist writes it, hates it, and then channels her frustration into aggression about something entirely unrelated.
A Parisian perfectionist pretends not to notice she wrote a first sentence, affecting an air of, "Oh yeah, I guess I did. Huh." Then she secretly, desperately hopes everyone loves it and, as a result, loves her. Who wrote that first sentence? I must be friends with her immediately!
A messy perfectionist writes the first sentence, loves it, and then writes seventeen other, very different versions of the first sentence and loves each one of those and couldn't possibly pick just one because you can't have a favorite child, and those are all her sentence babies.
One thing they all have in common: they might not even know they're perfectionists, nor appreciate all the ways perfectionism can hold them back or allow them to soar, depending on how it's managed.
In the most basic sense, managing your perfectionism looks like becoming aware of the core impulse all perfectionists reflexively experience: noticing room for improvement-Hmm, this could be better-and then consciously responding to that reflex instead of unconsciously reacting to it. Perfectionists are people who consistently notice the difference between an ideal and a reality, and who strive to maintain a high degree of personal accountability. This results in the perfectionist experiencing, more often than not, a compulsion to bridge the gulf between reality and an ideal themselves.
When left unchallenged, the perfectionist mindset hooks itself on the motive to perfect (as opposed to improve upon or accept) that which could be made better. This impulse to enhance evolves into a belief that urgently wallpapers itself on all sides of the perfectionist's mind, including the ceiling and floor: "I need something to be different about this moment before I can be satisfied."
Perfectionism is the invisible language your mind thinks in, the type of perfectionism that shows up in your everyday life based on your personality is just the accent.
I built my private practice around perfectionism because I so enjoy the energy of the perfectionist. Always pushing limits, forever poking the bear, unafraid to travel to the depth of their anger or desire, eternally seeking a connection to something bigger, to more.
Acknowledging that you want more is an act of boldness, and every perfectionist (when they're being honest, which people generally are in therapy) flaunts a bold streak I'm magnetically drawn towards.
I work mostly with women who can present well, who can seem completely put together when they want to seem that way, and whose problems aren't immediately apparent to others. This is exceedingly nuanced work because, as I suspect you know all too well, no one can hide their suffering better than the highly functioning person. I thrive on the constant challenge because, as I realized during one of the most disorienting moments of my life, I'm a perfectionist myself.
The cliché of it all bothers me still-I never realized how attached I was to control until I started to lose so much of it. In the exact moment that my personal and professional life began skyrocketing, I was diagnosed with cancer. I lost a pregnancy and had no opportunity to freeze my eggs before chemotherapy. I lost an extraordinary amount of time to the busyness of being sick. I lost my pretty brown hair. I lost confidence in my brand-new marriage. I lost professional opportunities I had spent years working towards. I lost control over the life I had painstakingly, perfectly constructed.
One moment I was riding the rapids, then the next it was as if something yanked me by the stomach into the still, quiet, and unseen place behind the waterfall. I was looking at what I'd always been looking at (perfectionism) but from a different vantage point. Why was I in a different position? Because in a misguided effort to be more balanced and healthy, I was resisting my own perfectionism.
I was sick, so of course I should've been relaxing, doing the bare minimum. It all made sense on paper. So I tried, I really did. And it was terrible, it really was. I was plopping pink bath bombs into my tub and sitting there watching them fizz away, bored out of my fucking mind, when I would've much rather been working, pushing, doing. Not pushing from a compensatory or avoidant place, not pushing to the extent that it disrupted my healing, but pushing because I enjoy being intensely engaged in my work and in my life.
The energy my perfectionist clients brought into the room presented in stark contrast to what I had started to feel in my private life. Their energy was charged, magnetic, brimming with infinite potentialities, destructive and constructive all at once. In noticing the burgeoning differences between myself and my clients, I simultaneously recognized the similarities that had been there the whole time.
I saw perfectionism for the power that it is, a strength I wanted to reclaim. It was a dynamic energy I had been helping my clients harness and exploit to their advantage for years, without having the language I have now for what I was doing. It wasn't until I tried to suppress the drive of my own perfectionism that I realized what I had in it.
I also realized that if I could be a perfectionist, me, the woman who could never find her phone and who extolled the work of social scientist extraordinaire Dr. Brené Brown to people behind her in line at the grocery store, then anybody could be a perfectionist and not even know it. What exactly was happening here?
I started to reverse engineer perfectionism, turn it inside out. In examining my own perfectionism and diving into the years I spent working with perfectionists, clear patterns emerged-five distinct presentations of one core concept, the five types of perfectionists.
Because perfectionism operates on a continuum, all perfectionists can embody aspects of each type within them. Though one type is usually dominant, it's also possible to experience contextually specific manifestations of perfectionism. For example, you can be a messy perfectionist when it comes to dating but a classic perfectionist during the holidays. Since I'm not a procrastinator perfectionist and can easily pick an entry point, let's start our discussion of the five types at the beginning: classic perfectionists.
The Five Types of Perfectionism
Tuesday, 10:58 a.m.
I opened the door for my 11:00 a.m. session. Claire was standing in the waiting room, hovering around four empty chairs, finishing an email on her phone. "And, done," she said as she efficiently gathered her small army of belongings to bring into my office: a jacket, two phones, a laptop bag, an indiscriminately labeled commuter bag for her heels, a not indiscriminately labeled Prada bag, and two grande, unsweetened, iced passion teas from Starbucks.
"We talked about this," I said after noticing the extra drink. "Can I help you with any of that?"
"I got it," she replied, modern-day juggling act in motion.
Claire entered my office seamlessly, swaying through the door like a red velvet curtain at showtime on opening night; gloriously on cue. As is the case with classic perfectionists, there was something ceremonious about Claire, who at twenty-two had legally changed her name because the original spelling didn't include the e at the end, a detail that irked her intolerably. As she described to me, "From second grade on, every single time I wrote my name, I died a little on the inside. Cumulatively, I'm sure it's taken two years off my life, but it's fixed now."
She pulled some kind of highly absorbent towelette out of her bag and wiped the water beads off the sides and bottom of her clear plastic Starbucks cup before setting it on the coaster. "I love these coasters; I don't want them getting wet," she explained (in fairness, they were really pretty coasters).
Claire repeated the water-bead sweep with the cup she had brought me before setting it down on my desk and saying, "I know we talked about it." Switching her tone to a perky whisper and with a half wink, she added, "But I also know you'll drink it after I leave." Then she sat in the exact same place on the couch that she sat in every week, but that's not a classic perfectionist thing; everyone does that.
The difference between putting your phone down next to you and setting your phone down next to you, that is a classic perfectionist thing. Classic perfectionists tend to be extremely deliberate about the way they handle physical objects; for example, they might set their phones down-meaning they take both hands, lay the phone down, and then take half a second to just kind of tilt it a bit, officially designating its otherwise arbitrary placement on the couch. This micro ritual that so many classic perfectionists perform always looked to me like tucking the phone into an invisible little bed with no covers. In a way that never got old, noticing the idiosyncrasy gave me a sweet dot of private joy.
Claire set her two phones next to her on the couch, only to flip them over midsentence thirty seconds later when they started lighting up. I closed the door after Claire ("with an e," as she loved to say) left. My iced passion tea was watered down by the past forty-five minutes but still as refreshing as ever.
Classic Perfectionists
Classic perfectionists, not surprisingly, present in a classic way, and Claire with an e was no exception. Everything about her was so clean and crisp, as if she'd purchased all her belongings earlier that morning and started a brand-new pop-up life. I think she made my couch cleaner just by sitting on it.
I had seen on Pinterest that if you run a lint roller along the bottom of your purse, you can easily pick up all the crumbs and bits accrued at the bottom. I hadn't checked, but I imagined that Claire didn't have any crumbs and bits, not at the bottom of her purse at least. But she was honest in our conversations together; she opened up to me about the invisible crumbs and bits in her life, the kinds of problems Pinterest hacks unfortunately can't solve for.
Only because Claire chose to let me in did I have any inkling that there was turmoil under the surface. Highly self-disciplined, classic perfectionists are adept at presenting in a uniform way, making it difficult to take their emotional temperature. Are they thrilled? Enraged? Having the best orgasm of their life? Who knows. They're either stoic or smiling as if they're about to have their picture taken. While it's easy to interpret this engagement style as inauthentic or closed off, it's anything but.
Classic perfectionists can be experienced by others as unapproachable or haughty, but the order this type builds around themselves is about reverence, not creating a wall. Classic perfectionists aren't trying to be impressive or distance themselves as much as they're trying to offer to others what they most value themselves: structure, consistency, predictability, an understanding of all the options so as to make an informed choice, high standards, objectivity, clarity through organization.
The opposite of inauthentic, classic perfectionists operate with incredible transparency about their particular set of preferences. Classic perfectionists also constantly broadcast their perfectionistic tendencies (here's my impeccable spreadsheet about restaurant options for vacation; here's my haircut that somehow perpetually looks like I just got a trim).
Reliable and predictable, classic perfectionists make it clear that they don't like disorder. For example, a classic perfectionist might say, "I don't like drinking because I don't like feeling out of control." Classic perfectionists take pride in their perfectionism. It's an ego-syntonic aspect of self (a feature they like) as opposed to an identity feature that's ego-dystonic (a feature they don't like).
Boasting a solid work ethic and patience to match, classic perfectionists can't help but be the teensiest bit smug about their style of control, which you can't really fault them for. (If I had zero crumbs and bits at the bottom of my bag, I would be beyond smug about it.)
In the cons corner, classic perfectionists have difficulty adjusting to schedule changes, big or small, and they tend to experience spontaneity as stressful. An itinerary-centered existence doesn't lend itself to discovering new and unexpected pleasures, and creating formulaic systems for dealing with family, work, friends, and more-with little room for organic expansion or any margin for error-can rob these perfectionists of the opportunity to grow in a way that isn't planned or goal-oriented.
Interpersonally, this type can be hard for others to connect with because of classic perfectionists' perceived lack of vulnerability. We tend to conflate external reliability with inner strength; that's a mistake. Classic perfectionists are as reliable in their darkest hour as they are in their brightest; just because they can always show up, that doesn't mean they're invincible or that they feel strong on the inside.
Also, the systematic way of operating that classic perfectionists default to doesn't encourage a spirit of collaboration, flexibility, or openness to external influence-qualities that help us build connections. The risk of this interpersonal style is that it can unintentionally generate relationships that veer towards the superficial and transactional. In turn, classic perfectionists can be left feeling excluded, misunderstood, and underappreciated for all that they do.
Parisian Perfectionists
Lauren texted me ten minutes before our session was set to begin: "running 10 late. sorry, worst day." Tall and beautiful (and caught in the rain), she came in soaked, looking like a Barbie doll that had been unceremoniously left in the backyard during a storm. I took her coat, and in between the time I took it and turned around to hang it, she started crying while apologizing for crying.
We discussed a meeting she'd had earlier that morning, which she perceived to have gone disastrously. When pressed, she acknowledged that the idea she presented dominated the conversation, and the team chose to spotlight her work at an upcoming conference.
I waited for her to finish before I said, "Help me understand the problem."
Lauren blurted her response out in exasperation: "Because I can tell she doesn't like me, and I hate it!"
Product details
- Publisher : Portfolio (January 17, 2023)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 059332952X
- ISBN-13 : 978-0593329528
- Item Weight : 1.18 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.2 x 1.2 x 9.3 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #4,589 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #22 in Popular Psychology Personality Study
- #102 in Personal Finance (Books)
- #191 in Success Self-Help
- Customer Reviews:
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I wanted to say this first, because what I didn't enjoy, as a guy, was the frankly unnecessary and intellectually lazy characterization of the male gender in the book, which stood in stark contrast to all the empirical evidence she presented and tasteful organization of different types of perfectionism.
I get that in her professional practice, the author has probably had to deal with the fact that men are often an antagonistic force for plenty of her patients, whether in relationships, positions of power, or just a random weirdo creating false perceptions for women to aspire to. And I'm sure a lot of energy to actually write the book came from a good intention to help women to overcome the barriers that are in put in front of them due to these men. But in a book where the author gives 5 different types of perfectionist for people, all "men" are tarred with the same brush, tidily swept to the margins with comments along the lines of "men don't have to deal with this" or "men never think this way." It's jarring and unfortunate.
I really hope the author considers this and writes future books with a bit more open-mindedness. Nothing against the work being women-focused, but maybe tone down the idea that men are some sort of afterthought in this conversation. We all need help in this area, and maybe one of the best ways to help women would be to make sure men understood this topic better too.
Top reviews from other countries
I reached out to Katherine regarding this exact question, "Why only women?", and her reply was both enlightening and reassuring. Katherine explained that during the writing process, she had every reader in mind, regardless of gender. She highlighted that perfectionism is a universal struggle, touching the lives of men, women, and non-binary people alike. The decision to cater specifically towards women stemmed from the unique challenges faced during the pandemic, where the burden of childcare and professional responsibilities fell heavily on their shoulders, spotlighting the gendered dimensions of perfectionism.
Katherine also shared her passion for the subject and the voluminous content she wished to include but had to omit due to the constraints of the book's length. Particularly, the distinct ways in which men experience and are affected by perfectionism, which could have warranted a separate book. This omission, she notes, was not an oversight but a difficult choice made in the interest of focus and brevity. Moreover, she acknowledged the potential oversight in marketing the book primarily to women, expressing that this choice might deter male readers who could benefit from its insights.
Her candidness and the depth of thought behind the book's focus add another layer of appreciation for her work. It's clear that "The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control: A Path to Peace and Power" is more than just a guide; it's a conversation starter about the nuanced ways in which perfectionism affects us all, differently yet profoundly. Katherine's humility and openness to feedback are commendable, and her request for readers like myself to share our experiences and perspectives is a testament to her commitment to reaching all who might benefit from her guidance. It's a reminder that the themes of control, balance, and self-compassion within the book are universal, transcending gender.
So, to any man who has hesitated or any person who felt this book might not be for them based on its marketed audience, let this review serve as a beacon. The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control is a testament to the power of understanding and overcoming perfectionism in a world that demands it in silence. Katherine's work is not just for women; it's a must-read for anyone who's ever felt the weight of their own expectations. This book is for you, too.
Reviewed in Canada on March 4, 2024
I reached out to Katherine regarding this exact question, "Why only women?", and her reply was both enlightening and reassuring. Katherine explained that during the writing process, she had every reader in mind, regardless of gender. She highlighted that perfectionism is a universal struggle, touching the lives of men, women, and non-binary people alike. The decision to cater specifically towards women stemmed from the unique challenges faced during the pandemic, where the burden of childcare and professional responsibilities fell heavily on their shoulders, spotlighting the gendered dimensions of perfectionism.
Katherine also shared her passion for the subject and the voluminous content she wished to include but had to omit due to the constraints of the book's length. Particularly, the distinct ways in which men experience and are affected by perfectionism, which could have warranted a separate book. This omission, she notes, was not an oversight but a difficult choice made in the interest of focus and brevity. Moreover, she acknowledged the potential oversight in marketing the book primarily to women, expressing that this choice might deter male readers who could benefit from its insights.
Her candidness and the depth of thought behind the book's focus add another layer of appreciation for her work. It's clear that "The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control: A Path to Peace and Power" is more than just a guide; it's a conversation starter about the nuanced ways in which perfectionism affects us all, differently yet profoundly. Katherine's humility and openness to feedback are commendable, and her request for readers like myself to share our experiences and perspectives is a testament to her commitment to reaching all who might benefit from her guidance. It's a reminder that the themes of control, balance, and self-compassion within the book are universal, transcending gender.
So, to any man who has hesitated or any person who felt this book might not be for them based on its marketed audience, let this review serve as a beacon. The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control is a testament to the power of understanding and overcoming perfectionism in a world that demands it in silence. Katherine's work is not just for women; it's a must-read for anyone who's ever felt the weight of their own expectations. This book is for you, too.
It would have been great if the book included a general (non-gender) approach to Perfectionism too, not just the specific point of view of the author, or other references she selected that make sense or align with her ideas.