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Having noted the ways in which this pathology inflames vulnerabilities and erodes resilience, Mr Curran suggests some causes.
注意到这种病态心理如何让人变得更脆弱并削弱人们的韧性后，柯伦提出了导致完美主义的一些原因。
These include a lack of job security, neurotic supervision by helicopter parents and the gaudy blandishments of advertising, which fuel consumption and anxiety.
这些原因包括缺乏工作稳定感、溺爱孩子的父母神经质般的监督，以及加剧消费和焦虑的花言巧语的广告。
"The very fabric of this economy", he claims, "is woven from our discontent." Inevitably he blames social media, which inundate users with images of finely sculpted bodies, flawless outfits, ambrosial holidays and exquisite weddings.
"这种经济的基本结构，"他称，"就是用我们的不满之情编织而成的。"不可避免地，柯伦将此归咎于社交媒体，社交媒体让用户淹没在雕塑般的优美身材、完美的穿搭、享受美食的度假和精致的婚礼图片之中。
A less familiar culprit is Don Hamachek, an American psychologist, who in the 1970s coined the term "normal perfectionism", thereby legitimising morbid self-criticism, says Mr Curran.
柯伦还表示，另一个不太为人所知的罪魁祸首是美国心理学家唐·哈马切克，他在20世纪70年代创造了"正常的完美主义"一词，从而使病态的自我批评变得合理。
He even reproaches Barack Obama for enjoining young people to learn from their mistakes. Instead, he says, failures should be "allowed to simply wash through us as a joyous reminder of what it means to be a fallible human".
柯伦甚至指责贝拉克·奥巴马要求年轻人从错误中吸取教训。相反，他说应该"让失败从生活中流过，愉快地提醒我们，人无完人意味着什么"。
The author's greatest odium, though, is directed at meritocracy. In this he draws on the thinking of Michael Sandel, a philosopher at Harvard.
然而，作者最憎恨的是精英管理制度。在这一点上，他借鉴了哈佛大学哲学家迈克尔·桑德尔的思想。
Especially in "The Tyranny of Merit" (published in 2020), Professor Sandel has argued that using education as a giant sorting machine creates a toxic obsession with credentials, dividing society into winners and losers and depleting the common good.
尤其是在2020年出版的《精英的傲慢》一书中，桑德尔教授认为，把教育当作一台巨大的分类机器，会产生一种对资格证书的有毒的痴迷，从而将社会分成赢家和输家两类，并损害公共利益。
Like other critics of meritocracy, Mr Curran has a point--until you consider the alternatives.
与其他批评精英管理制度的人一样，柯伦的观点是有道理的----直到你考虑了其他选择。
Daily life, in his view, now resembles an endless tribunal. Young people suffer most from the constant scrutiny of scores and rankings.
在他看来，现在日常生活就像一个没有尽头的法庭。持续不断的分数和排名方面的审视让年轻人承受了最多的痛苦。
Decrying a fixation on economic growth, he applauds countries, such as Bhutan and New Zealand, where decision-makers take account of citizens' happiness. Mr Curran's preferred fix is a universal basic income, which he says would "extinguish the fire of perfectionism".
在谴责了对经济增长的偏爱后，柯伦对不丹和新西兰等国家表示赞赏，这些国家的决策者会考虑公民的幸福感。柯伦倾向的解决办法是全民基本收入，他认为这将"扑灭完美主义的火焰"。
Whatever its economic merits, his argument errs in treating perfectionism as a purely cultural phenomenon. Might it not also be a disposition embedded in the psyche?
无论其经济价值如何，他的观点都错误地将完美主义视为一种纯粹的文化现象。难道完美主义不也是一种根植于内心深处的倾向吗？
Tellingly, his guidance--"Keep going. Do not yield"; "Keep practising that acceptance of fortune and fate"--is couched in the language of the perfectionist's round-the-clock report card.
很能说明问题的是，他的指导建议----"继续前进，不要屈服""不断练习接受或好或坏的命运"----就是用完美主义者时刻不停的成绩报告单式的语言表述的。
