It seems from his writings that Dr Bates
attached great importance to the concept of perfection.
Throughout his book and articles it occurs
time and again: perfect vision, perfect
memory, perfect imagination, perfect
blackness, perfect relaxation, and so
on. Clarifying Dr Bates' ideas on this subject
and the questions they raise would seem
worthwhile.
The emphasis on perfection has led many
people who have used the Bates Method to feel
disappointed that their vision has not become
absolutely perfect even though they may have had
great improvement, while others are discouraged
from starting the process of improvement at all
because the apparent demand is so daunting.
It is clear that the majority of optometrists are
engaged in the quest for a rigid perfection: the
essential creed of optometry is that there is a perfect
prescription which will perfectly correct
the optical error (which is, of course, assumed
to be invariable) and give perfect vision
at all times. Vision teachers are inclined to
routinely disparage this point of view, while Dr
Kaplan and others have provided clear evidence
that it is misguided in various ways.
Many vision teachers, myself included, have taken
a fairly soft approach, reasoning that any
improvement is better than none, and that a large
number of small steps may well lead us to that
final goal. However, there are dangers and
pitfalls with this way also.
The greatest difficulty, I feel, comes from most
people's concept of perfection as necessarily
implying something fixed, final, unalterable, an
attitude which aligns with the usual
optometrists' view.
