Looksmaxxing is the latest trend associated with perfectionism. Moral perfectionism is likely not as common as it was due to the decline in the number of people practicing religion, and success-oriented perfectionism is so common that there’s little left unsaid about it. So, we can use looksmaxxing to highlight a deeper problem, which finds several expressions. Perfectionism is a creature, or better yet, a virus, morphing and evolving to survive. It always latches onto the wider culture. We can become perfectionistic about almost anything. But that’s the point—it doesn’t matter.

I’ve often asked patients why they’re so preoccupied with becoming the best in some domain, why they need something so much that they’re willing to organize their lives around it, sacrificing all types of pleasures for it. Most of the time, there isn’t much of an answer. It’s like a game, a distraction, and a fantasy; there’s no rhyme or reason, no sense of why they do it or what’s to come, and no understanding of how being the best generates long-standing happiness. It all feels so random to an outsider, who may easily question their passion. With little general forethought, looksmaxxing blends the elements of perfectionism—obsessiveness, sensitivity to criticism and rejection, desire for widespread and complete approval, the need to be part of an elite group, and the intolerance of one’s flaws—with vanity—the preoccupation with being extremely physically attractive.

Like all of the other forms of perfectionism, looksmaxxing is........

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