Among all the open discourse on mental illness and how it affects different people in their lives, you may have occasionally heard the phrase “Imposter Syndrome” from time to time.
If you’re unaware of the term, however, suffice to say that imposter syndrome (also called the “imposter phenomenon” or “imposterism”) is the overwhelming and persistent fear or perception that, despite evidence of one’s competence, a person believes that their expertise and achievements are fraudulent.
This can often coincide with a deathly fear of being “discovered” for their fraud, even though there is no fraud to discover.The phenomenon was first discussed in the 1970s in relation to women that had become successful in the workplace only to be plagued by feelings of falsehood and fakery.
Today, our understanding of imposter syndrome has expanded, and the condition is often experienced by people who feel that they somehow don’t deserve their success.