The Perfection Trap by Thomas Curran

THE PERFECTION TRAP by Thomas Curran is subtitled “Embracing the Power of Good Enough” and Curran, a professor of psychology at the London School of Economics, uses different sections of this relatively slim text to define perfectionism and what it does to us, to outline some possible causes, and to offer suggestions for embracing imperfection. It is an ambitious task and the main culprits – the economy, social media, and advertising – which Curran cites offer many examples with most people “seemingly gluttons for punishment,” resulting in “epidemics of burnout and mental distress.” In a generally accessible manner, Curran combines personal stories and experiences with the results of academic studies to bolster his points. For example, he references the phrase “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger” and its recent ubiquitous nature, saying “we've taken it for granted that perfectionism hurts because we think that hurt, far from being destructive, is the secret to a life well lived.” Also of particular interest are college students’ perfectionism scores on the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale:  self-oriented and other-oriented scores have risen over time, but not as dramatically as those for socially-prescribed perfectionism. Notes on references like Jean Twenge’s work on the role of smartphones, comprise roughly twenty percent of the text.

Curran’s popular TedTalk speech gives some background and could be a helpful discussion starter for students:

An Emotion of Great Delight by Tahereh Mafi

As we talked about recent favorite books, several students praised the Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi.  They will also appreciate her new standalone novel, AN EMOTION OF GREAT DELIGHT. Mafi is an amazingly talented writer; her A Very Large Expanse of Sea was longlisted for the National Book Award. She sets AN EMOTION OF GREAT DELIGHT in 2003, shortly after the September 11 attacks and explores Islamophobia as well as coming of age issues dealing with parental expectations, questions of faith, friendships, and first love. Shadi is finishing high school while trying to deal with several family traumas. The circumstances are overwhelming and she muses, “People thought I was growing up, and perhaps I was, perhaps this was growing up – this, this, an uncertain spiral into a darkness lined with teeth.”

Mafi’s words invoke empathy for Shadi and also for students who may be dealing with individual situations (particularly in the last fifteen months) of which teachers and other adults may not be aware. As Shadi says, “I made it to the sidewalk and stared at my feet, my heart beating erratically in my chest. I’d been fighting tears all day, all week, all year; it was exhausting.” Shadi’s struggles encompass health issues and a death in her family, plus feelings for Ali, brother of her best friend Zahra, all of which are tempered by cultural expectations: “I could not deny the beliefs that shaped me any more than I could deny the color of my eyes. It made for a lonely life …. lived, always, on the uncertain plane of a hyphen.” I strongly recommend this novel, both for the important universal themes it explores and for the quality of the writing (“The sunlight was heavy today, fingers of heat forming sweaty hands that braced my face…”).  AN EMOTION OF GREAT DELIGHT received enthusiastic stared reviews from Booklist (“A bluntly powerful read that shouldn’t be missed”), Kirkus, and School Library Journal.