Customer Reviews

The Cult of Perfection: Making Peace with Your Inner Overachiever

This book is a pointless read and filled with old, rehashed ideas. Cooper Lawrence offers no new insight to the deeper problems that cause someone to need to be an over achiever. There are many other books out there that were written by actual practicing psychologists and which are respected by the psychological community at large. I seriously recommend Codependent No More by Melody Beattie for anyone that stuggles with this. Also, going to an actual licensed psychologist may be the answer.

Please don't contribute to the rash of pop psychology that promises quick fixes and delivers little or no results.

Cooper is at best only interesting in superficial qualities of life. It truly disturbs me that this woman is held up as a role model for young women in this country. Her advice is heard by many, many young women across this country despite that fact that Cooper has very little real world psychological experience. Essentially this women went straight from college into the entertainment industry: talk radio, magazines, and tabloid news television. As of the writing of this review she has yet to complete her Doctorate.

My sister recently bought this book and quickly pawned it off on me.
That's the best thing I can really say about this book.

Unfortunately, it seems like Ms.Lawrence really took some meaning from the title of her book; she not only made peace with her inner overachiever but forgot about it completely.

The best word I could use to summarize her work is this, lazy. It's as if she doesn't do any research on any of the topics that she brings up as factual. Instead she seems to have taken from other pseudo-psychology books on the topic that manage to get some coverage and shape what they said into something that is written in stone.

Any actual professional in the fields relevant to the material would have agree that she has no basis for any of her claims she presents as fact in her book.

On a side note, more as a review on the author than the book itself, she has no ethics what-so-ever. She recently went on TV to criticize something she had no experience with at all simply because it would grab her some air-time hoping to get her name and book out to the public. Besides the fact that her book is definitely undeserving of a purchase, I would never knowingly support anything this woman does knowing that she would use such underhanded and ridiculous methods of gaining some TV-time as blindly bashing random things that happen to be in the spotlight at the time.

I've read far better books than this. This book clearly encourages conceitedness and a superiority complex. I want this 1.5 hours of my life back.

Ms. Cooper's book, like herself falls short on many levels. Her research as a "psychologist" is lacking and her skills as an author are dismal. What is incredibly fascinating is how she does not hesitate to say anything she is told to in order to advance herself...is that really what being an "overachiever" is all about? If so, then we would all be well suited to never, ever read this book. Probably better to burn it.

And all of you that are interested in commenting on the reality of how bad this book is be warned: Amazon deleted over 400 posts earlier, and appears to delete all reviews that are not shining. Corporate policy? Maybe so, but that policy is a dangerous one and it is time people become aware of this company that rewrites what is supposed to be free, honest opinion.

I purchased this title as a gift for my mother, as she is a successful driven business woman who would be able to glean any useful information from almost any publish work. After she completed it, she told me that this book unfortunately falls into the small group of works categorized as 'completely useless'. Not only are the theories and suggestions completely unresearched and unsupported, she uses her on air personality as a means to make her statements credible. There are many books available on the subject that are far superior, I see no reason to waste the money to purchase or time to read this one.

Though it is strange that there are *SO* many negative reviews, I will have to rate this book poorly. Lawerence does not make a single statement that is original or inventive. Her writing is witty at times but her inexperience and poor intellectual capacity shine through her words like a beacon. Books are supposed to enlighten and make an impact on your life, but after this relatively brief read, one if forced to question: what is the point in reading a book like this?

Please do not waste your money on this book.

In this text Cooper Lawrence makes unjustified statements and ridiculous claims that have no rational basis. She supports arguments without establishing her credibility--and sometimes outright denying her experience--regarding the issues she raises. The entire book seems to be a childish and naive inner rambling on a topic with which she has no know real knowledge or expertise.

Looking for an appropriate book with insight on how we, as people, strive for perfection, I came across this book, though sadly, it fell extremely short of my expectations.

To start off, the book is a simple rehash of ideas that have been and remain present in the psychology community. It provides little to no new insight on the subject. What is even worse is that the very little new insight that is provided is poorly backed, based on illogical and often false assumptions.

It seems as if the author did very little proper research in writing and developing the ideas presented in this book. Some ideas are taken from new studies and discussions, though the ideas are taken very selectively, omitting important background information that, in the wrong context, completely loses its original meaning. I think it goes without saying that the context in which the author puts these ideas in is, in fact, entirely wrong.

As such, I cannot say that I recommend this book, and I will soon be looking for another (better) book on the same subject. As stated in the title, save your time, money, and effort. It is better spent looking for another book, or even doing some research yourself.

As a psychology professor, I'm a big reader of the female self-help / psychology genre, but found this book to be a huge oversimplification of a larger problem. Rather than examining the roots of the sociological issues surrounding women (and more specifically successful women) it offers trite advice to women on how to deal with being successful. The majority of this advice is poorly thought out and generalized to a very small subset of women. Essentially, if you're a women who has significant guilt associated with being an achiever, this is the book for you. Actually, on second thought, this is a book for no one.