Healing the Perfectionist Surgeon

Disabling perfectionism rules both the personal and professional life of many surgeons. Internalization of a relentless drive for perfection in care, as well as in life, is reinforced through rigorous and competitive training and fostered by cultural pressures to perform to the highest-and frequently unrealistic-standards. Society demands perfection from surgeons as a minimum standard. In this article, the author describes the physician who is a victim and perpetrator of this mindset and presents prevalent attributes of perfectionism, common traits of perfectionists, and plans and interventions for reducing perfectionism in the medical-surgical setting.