[Aelia Jusa]

Originally posted by Albromor: Under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV; which is THE standard manual for diagnosis) published by the American Psychiatric Association, lable perfectionists as Obsessive-Compulsive. Here is some of what they say: "The essential feature of the Obsessive-Compulsive... is a preoccupation with ordiliness, perfectionism, and mental and interpersonal control, at the expense of flexibility, openness, and efficiency. This pattern begins in early adulthood and is present in a variety of contexts... Individuals with O-C attempt to maintain a sense of control to painstaking attention to rules, trivial details, procedures, lists, schedules... [they] display excessive devotion to work and productivity to the exclusion of liesure activities and friendships... and when they do have time they are uncomfortable [for they think it is a waste of time]..." There is a whole lot more but I think you get a glimpse of what perfectionism is. personally, wacky, I think your own description is right on. Remember, however, the woundedness that a perfectionistic has can be of varying degress. That is why you have have varying degrees of response on this board. By the way, anal attentive and obsessive-compulsive ARE the same thing. Frasier and Felix are in the same boat, but Felix is definitly the more extreme. For what its worth...

What you're actually quoting is the description for Obsessive-Compulsive personality disorder - NOT Obsessive-compulsive disorder. People with OCD may be perfectionists but it is not the major characteristic of the disorder (in fact not even part of the diagnostic criteria - see page 462 of DSM-IV-TR) - obsessions and compulsions are, which someone who is a perfectionist (as described by Whacky) need not have, and OCPD is differentiated from OCD because OCPD sufferers don't have true obsessions and compulsions. Moreover the presentation for OCPD need not include perfectionism - it is merely one of eight criteria of which only four are necessary to be diagnosed.