In The Perfection Trap, Thomas Curran brings together his academic expertise and lived experience to delve deep into perfectionism and the costs of living in a society where the pressures to reach perfection are more pervasive than ever. In the chapter, “Accept yourself”, Curran offers some practical and realistic advice for those struggling with perfectionism. Though he admits this won’t necessarily be easy with the forces of today’s culture working against us. The first step is understanding perfectionism and recognising that our need for perfection is largely conditioned by our culture. Acceptance involves not only accepting ourselves, but accepting we are not responsible for the culture we live in, especially the young who have inherited it from previous generations. That said, while the economy and society will continue to feed on our insecurities, he urges us to take a stand against it. Despite over 2,000 years of study, it still is not known whether there exist infinitely many perfect numbers; or whether there are any odd ones. [9] She looked so damn embarrassed and defeated that he couldn’t stop himself from brushing his lips against hers one last time. “You’re beautiful, Zoe,” he said, realizing at that moment just how beautiful she really was. From her beautiful soft brown hair to her stubborn little chin she was beautiful. The number 10 was thought perfect because there are 10 fingers to the two hands. The number 6 was believed perfect for being divisible in a special way: a sixth part of that number constitutes unity; a third is two; a half — three; two-thirds ( Greek: dimoiron) is four; five-sixths ( pentamoiron) is five; six is the perfect whole. The ancients also considered 6 a perfect number because the human foot constituted one-sixth the height of a man, hence the number 6 determined the height of the human body. [8] Euclid

Another early idea — one that was to be espoused by many illustrious writers and artists of various periods — found perfection in the circle and the sphere. Aristotle wrote in the Physica that the circle was "the perfect, first, most beautiful form". Cicero wrote in De Natura Deorum (On the Nature of the Gods): "Two forms are the most distinctive: of solids, the sphere... and of plane figures, the circle... There is nothing more commensurate than these forms." [25] In the latter part of the 18th century, Immanuel Kant wrote much in his Critique of Judgment about perfection — inner and outer, objective and subjective, qualitative and quantitative, perceived clearly and obscurely, the perfection of nature and that of art. Nevertheless, in aesthetics Kant found that "The judgment of taste [i.e., aesthetic judgment] is entirely independent of the concept of perfection" — that is, beauty was something different from perfection. [31]a b Tatarkiewicz, "Perfection: the Term and the Concept," Dialectics and Humanism, vol. VI, no. 4 (autumn 1979), p. 7. Baked to Perfection contains all the recipes and scientific understanding you need to bake anything gluten-free, and for it to work perfectly every time. Katarina has produced a beautiful and inspiring book that makes me want to head for the kitchen and switch on the oven! A magnificent achievement' - Juliet Sear, author of The Cake Decorating Bible The variants on the concept of perfection would have been quite of a piece for two thousand years, had they not been confused with other, kindred concepts. The chief of these was the concept of that which is the best: in Latin, " excellentia" ("excellence"). In antiquity, " excellentia" and " perfectio" made a pair; thus, for example, dignitaries were called " perfectissime", just as they are now called "excellency." Nevertheless, these two expression of high regard differ fundamentally: " excellentia" is a distinction among many, and implies comparison; while " perfectio" involves no comparison, and if something is deemed perfect, then it is deemed so in itself, without comparison to other things. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who thought much about perfection and held the world to be the best of possible worlds, did not claim that it was perfect. [5] Paradoxes Vanini Perfectionism, according to psychologists, can blind us to our achievements while enforcing impeccable – often impossible – standards upon ourselves. It can be inflicted from within (self-oriented), projected on to others (other-oriented) or absorbed from those around us (socially prescribed). Trying (and failing) to meet these expectations can be destructive and perfectionism can make someone vulnerable to anxiety, depression and suicide. As a trait, it had certainly caused Curran plenty of anguish, but as a research subject, it turned out to be a good match. In 2017, he co-authored a far-reaching study with Dr Andrew Hill that demonstrated that perfectionism had been steadily rising since the 1980s. Recent generations of young people, he wrote in the Psychological Bulletin, “perceive that others are more demanding of them, are more demanding of others, and are more demanding of themselves”.

A perfectly plastic body is one that is deformed infinitely at a constant load corresponding to the body's limit of plasticity: this is a physical model, not a body observed in nature. [12]Growing up, R.L. Mathewson was a painfully shy bookworm. After high school, she attended college, worked as a bellhop, fast food cook, and a museum worker until she decided to take an EMT course. Working as an EMT helped her get over her shyness as well as left her with some fond memories and some rather disturbing ones that from time to time show up in one of her books. a b c Tatarkiewicz, "Moral Perfection", Dialectics and Humanism, vol. VII, no. 3 (summer 1980), p. 124. I guess the main point here is that in life we develop an idea of what we think perfect is supposed to be like. Then life shows us that perfect doesn’t look a bit like what we thought it would, and if we’re smart we’ll see the difference. That if we grab for real-world perfection we will be rewarded with wisdom and joy.

Tatarkiewicz, "Paradoxes of Perfection", Dialectics and Humanism, vol. VII, no. 1 (winter 1980), p. 77. Beginning with Serlio and Palladio, perfection in art had become less important, less definite, less objective. The striving for perfection no longer had the importance for men of letters that it did for the great architects. But the 17th century still revered perfection, as shown by the appearance of that word in book titles: De perfecta poesi by the Polish poet Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski (1595–1640); Le peintre parfait (1767 by André Félibien; and Idée de la perfection de la peinture (1662) by Fréart de Chambray. [29] A fascinating and panoramic analysis of perfectionism in modern capitalist societies' Grace Blakeley The main premise of the book is to underscore the role that modern culture plays in rising levels of perfectionism. While socially prescribed perfectionism can involve the perception that society more generally imposes unrealistic expectations, so far, the role of society and culture has been largely overlooked in the literature. In this regard, the book broadens our understanding and our way of thinking about perfectionism. While more research is needed in this area, Curran makes a convincing case for the role of both the economy and culture in creating an environment that amplifies perfectionism.Primitive man was held to be the most perfect, for he was closest to nature. Perfection lay behind present-day man rather than before him, for civilization distanced man from perfection instead of bringing him closer to it. [20] The perfect gas equation arose from the work of Robert Boyle, Edme Mariotte and Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, who, in studying the properties of real gases, found formulas applicable not to these but to an ideal, perfect gas. [12] Ethics Plato The perfect numbers early on came to be treated as the measure of other numbers: those in which the sum of the divisors is greater than the number itself, as in 12, have — since as early as Theon of Smyrna, ca. 130 A.D. — been called "redundant" ( Latin: redundantio), "more than perfect" ( plus quam perfecti), or " abundant numbers", and those the sum of whose divisors is smaller, as in 8, have been called " deficient numbers" ( deficientes). [9] The Renaissance showed a marked concern with preeminence in perfection. Leonardo concluded that the most perfect of the arts was painting. In 1546 Benedetto Varchi compared great masters in the arts. Others compared art and science, art and nature, and perfection in the arts of the ancients with that in the modern masters. The 16th century saw comparisons of their music, the 17th — of their visual arts and especially of their poetry. These comparisons construed perfection fairly loosely; the concept was treated more strictly by architects. [27] Petrik, S., Perfection – 5 Principles of Lean Thinking, Center for Quality Management in Education, accessed 20 December 2022