The Dark Wizard of Perfection

Summary: A new HBO Max documentary called The Dark Wizard looks at the thrilling and tragic life of famous rock climber Dean Potter. Dean was a master of "free soloing," which means climbing huge, deadly cliffs without ropes. Because one mistake meant death, Dean had to be perfect. But his need to be the absolute best went too far.

When a younger, faster climber named Alex Honnold started breaking his records, Dean struggled with deep jealousy, anger, and depression. Psychologists explain that this is the dark side of perfectionism. When people hang all their self-worth on being number one, they live in constant fear of losing their spot. Dean even invented extreme new sports, like FreeBASEing (climbing with a parachute), just to stay ahead. In the end, his extreme need to be perfect pushed away his friends because he couldn't handle sharing the spotlight. It shows that perfectionism is like a bottomless pit—you can never truly win because there will always be someone else to challenge you.

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