Psychologists define the syndrome of excellence or perfectionism as a mental state in which a person, setting himself obviously high goals, in every way seeks to achieve them, while trying to complete the task perfectly, on the "five plus", but sometimes forgetting about other aspects of life, such as entertainment, recreation, food and socializing.
The goal becomes a fixed idea for a person, and if it is not achieved or achieved, but not fully, depression, stress and depression occur, which in severe cases can lead to mental disorders.
First of all, children are subject to the emergence of a character trait called “the syndrome of an excellent student” (aka “the syndrome of a perfect student”), since the child’s psyche has not yet been completely formed. It occurs, as a rule, due to improper upbringing. Some parents place all those hopes on their offspring that they couldn’t realize themselves at one time. The child, trying in every way to please the parents and earn their approval, sets a goal for himself - to achieve the best result by any means.
Also, perfectionism is often manifested in people with low self-esteem. Such people try to prove to everyone, especially to themselves, that they are capable of doing something better than anyone.
Life story
Pushing her whole body into the student's chair, Masha began to violently scratch its edges. Mathematics teacher Marya Ivanovna aloud the marks for the last test. Masha was sure that she had completed all the tasks correctly, but something inside did not give her any peace.
Bear Grigorov again got a deuce - no wonder! This boy never had a special intelligence. However, it seems that the news about the unsatisfactory assessment did not hurt him at all - Masha could not understand this, because she herself always tried to do everything perfectly well.
Anya Vinogradova - her closest competitor - got five with a minus. “How humiliating this must be,” thought Masha, “be aware of her own shortcomings!” Suddenly, Maria Ivanovna called her name and fell silent, looking at Masha with a smile.
“Masha Kuznetsova,” she said, “consistently shows good results. Well done! Everyone should take an example from her. But this time I decided to rate four.
Masha felt the blood rush to her cheeks:
- But why?! she cried in their hearts.
- You did not quite correctly round the result, and he did not agree with mine.
- But how can this be considered a mistake? - Masha continued to argue. In her chest, everything was boiling with indignation.
- Calm down, Mashenka, I gave you a good grade, - Marya Ivanovna was perplexed, - a solid four.
- But I can not get four! I need only fives!
The class has subsided. Astonished, everyone looked at Masha. No one could understand why it is so important to her. Only Marya Ivanovna, being a subtle teacher, immediately determined that the girl suffers from the so-called "excellent pupil syndrome" or psychological trait called perfectionism.
An interesting video about the syndrome excellent:
What to do with this character trait?
It is necessary to get rid of perfectionism, because a person will never be harmonious and whole with such a high level of self-pretensions. A large role in the prevention of the syndrome of excellence rests with the parents.
First of all, they must show the child that they love and accept him as he is, and it does not matter whether he received the top five at school today or not. It is important to let the child understand that only the knowledge he acquired is valuable, and not their assessment, which, by the way, does not always adequately reflect the level of learning that a child has.
