Perfectionists tend to protect their self-image at almost any cost. Fundamentally, chronic defensiveness is a game of emotional hot potato, wherein shame is persistently and compulsively redirected and boomeranged, both directly and indirectly, to the accuser. Perfectionists tend to perceive their reactions, especially their negative ones, as fully dependent on those of others. Rather than actively directing one’s shame to another, minimizing can indirectly cause the other to feel shame for making a “minor” issue more significant. Perfectionists tend to fixate on their environments, depending on them to inform their self-esteem.