Greenspon, T.
1575423871 & 978-1575423876
Free Spirit Publishing
2012
BOOK REVIEW (Davidson Institute) - A review of Thomas S. Greenspon's book Freeing Our Families from Perfectionism (the new edition is titled Moving Past Perfect: How Perfectionism May Be Holding Back Your Kids (and You!) and What You Can Do About It).
Reviewed by the Davidson Institute for Talent Development.
Moving Past Perfect is a very helpful and informative book. It is full of ideas, techniques and exercises to help overcome perfectionism in children and their parents, as well as in entire families. The earlier version of this book, titled Freeing Our Families from Perfectionism, won the National Parenting Publications Gold Award and a Parent’s Choice Award. Dr. Greenspon is highly qualified to write this book as he has a Ph.D. in psychology and has been practicing psychology for decades.
Raising a child who is a perfectionist can be a daunting task. Being a perfectionist can also be a very big challenge to overcome. Dr. Greenspon has done an excellent job of putting complex concepts into an easy to understand and quick to read format. This book is not specifically geared toward highly gifted learners, but it does have advice to help highly gifted learners and their families who are affected by perfectionism. This book is a must read for families struggling with the burden of perfectionism.
Moving Past Perfect offers advice for perfectionists as well as people who are not perfectionists, but who have perfectionists in their lives. There is very useful information throughout this book. A unique and interesting aspect of this book is that every one of the eleven chapters in Moving Past Perfect contains “make a note of it” sections and “talk it over” sections. Dr. Greenspon states that perfectionism is not something that will be conquered overnight. These sections are designed to get the reader more actively involved and are intended as baby steps in the right direction. They offer advice to get the ball rolling, which is sometimes the hardest part for anyone facing a challenge.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has perfectionism in their lives. Whether the person reading this book is a perfectionist or they know someone who is a perfectionist, this book can help. Moving Past Perfect is a must read for all members of families struggling with perfectionism. Perseverance over perfectionism is best achieved by entire families or groups of people, and this book would make a great catalyst for that process.
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