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The enemy of the good: The Perfection Trap
优秀之敌：完美主义的陷阱
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "The Birth-Mark", a chemist called Aylmer marries a young woman, Georgiana, whose sole imperfection is a red blemish on her left cheek.
在纳撒尼尔·霍桑的短篇小说《胎记》中，一位名叫艾尔默的化学家娶了一位名叫乔治安娜的年轻女子，她唯一的缺陷就是左脸颊上有一块红色斑点。
He considers it a "fatal flaw"; she pleads with him to use his skills to remove it. Stumbling on his journal, however, Georgiana is astonished to find it is a catalogue of scientific mishaps.
艾尔默认为这是一个"致命的缺陷"，乔治安娜恳求他用他的化学能力祛除红斑。然而，乔治安娜偶然发现了艾尔默的日记，她惊讶地发现日记上记录的都是各种科学小事故。
Might his loathing of her birthmark stem from his professional disappointment? At length Aylmer concocts a potion that has the desired effect--and promptly kills her.
艾尔默对她胎记的厌恶难道是源于他在工作上的失意？最后，艾尔默调制了一种药水，这种药水达到了预期的效果，但也立即让乔治安娜丧命。
Hawthorne's 180-year-old tale illustrates the perils of perfectionism. It is Thomas Curran's starting-point for a study of what he calls a "hidden epidemic".
霍桑的这篇180年前的故事说明了完美主义的危险。这也是托马斯·柯伦对他所说的"隐藏的流行病"的研究起点。
He thinks the obsessive pursuit of ever higher standards, rather than propelling achievement, is mainly a scourge. A social psychologist at the London School of Economics, he describes himself as "a recovering perfectionist".
柯伦认为，痴迷于追求更高的标准，而不是推动成就，在很大程度上是一种祸害。作为伦敦政治经济学院的社会心理学家，他将自己描述为"一个正在康复的完美主义者"。
Drawing on both academic research and his own experiences of "deficit thinking", he makes a vigorous case, albeit one occasionally marked by cliché (he sees his younger self as a "chin-stroking, cardigan-wearing intellectual").
根据学术研究和他自己的"缺陷思维"经历，他提出了有力的论据，尽管偶尔有俗套的地方(他认为自己年轻时是一个"摸着下巴、穿着羊毛开衫的知识分子")。
Mr Curran distinguishes between three sorts of perfectionism. The first, which looks inward, is the relentless self-scolding of the workaholic or punctilious student.
柯伦区分了三种完美主义。第一种是向内的，是工作狂或刻苦学生的严厉自责。
A second version, directed towards others, is commonly found in bosses who have unrealistic expectations of their staff and decry their supposed failings (he cites Steve Jobs as an example).
第二种是指向他人的，通常出现在那些对员工抱有不切实际的期望，并强烈批评员工的所谓缺点的老板身上(他举了史蒂夫·乔布斯的例子)。
The third and most troublesome kind is the form imputed to society: "an all-encompassing belief that everybody, at all times, expects us to be perfect". Its victims tend to feel lonely; often they harm themselves and harbour thoughts of suicide.
第三种也是最讨厌的一种，是将完美主义归咎于社会："一种包含一切的信念，认为所有人不论什么时候都期望我们是完美的"。这种完美主义的受害者往往感到孤独，他们经常伤害自己，并怀有自杀的想法。
