Perfektionismus und die Folgen – psychische Störungen und andere belastende Auswirkungen

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“…In addition to submissive behavior aimed at acceptance by the therapist, behavior that excessively controls the therapy process can also occur [Spitzer, 2015;Lee-Baggley et al, 2016] (e.g., excessive talking to avoid preoccupation with painful feelings, excessive interrupting or questioning of interventions). A possible variant to empathically confront patients with such behaviors is to mark them -in the sense of a schema therapeutic ap-proach -as an activated mode (in this case: an overcompensatory controlling coping mode; see chapter 8.2).…”

“…Especially patients with other-oriented perfectionism can also direct excessive standards towards the person of the therapist and the therapeutic methods applied. This can be manifested, for example, by a demanding, skeptical or confrontational attitude or even verbal criticism towards the therapist and can also lead to premature therapy discontinuation [Spitzer, 2015]. On the therapist's side, perceived high expectations from patients can trigger dysfunctional cognitions (such as "If we do not achieve rapid change, the patient will reject me"), which can have unfavorable effects on therapist's behavior (e.g., overrunning the time of sessions, too much talking by the therapist, too many interventions at too fast a pace, excessive preparation for sessions) [Egan et al, 2014].…”

“…In ACT, perfectionism is understood as a form of experiential avoidance or a dysfunctional response to unpleasant internal experiences (e.g., excessive preparing as avoidance of the feeling of inadequacy). In the context of perfectionism treatment, ACT (similar to MBCT) aims to mindfully notice thoughts (such as "others might reject me if I fail") and feelings (such as shame or fear), to create distance from these thoughts without changing their content, and to face aversive feelings with more acceptance [Spitzer, 2015;Ong et al, 2019]. Another goal of ACT interventions is to help patients to orient their behavior more toward personally meaningful goals (e.g., sufficient time with the family) and to reduce perfectionistic patterns of behavior that could stand in the way of this.…”