What is Impostor Syndrome? | Two Minute Papers #46

Who, or what is an impostor?

Simple definition: a person who deceives others by pretending to be someone else Full definition: one that assumes false identity or title for the purpose of deception Wow, the full definition is a whopping 7 characters more. I don't even know what to do with this amount of time I saved reading the simple definition first. Let's look in the mind of someone who suffers from impostor syndrome and see the fickle understanding they have of their own achievements. 98 points out of 100, this surely means that they mixed up my submission with someone else's, who was way smarter than I am. I went in for the next round of interviews, messed up big time, and I got hired with an incredible salary. This can, of course, only be a misunderstanding. I got elected for this prestigious award. I don't know how this could possibly have happened. Maybe someone who really likes me tried to pressure the prize committee to vote for me. I cannot possibly imagine any other way of this happening. I've been 5 years at the company now and still, no one found out that I am a fraud. That's a disaster Nothing can be convince me that I am not an impostor who fooled everyone else for being a bright person. However funny as it may sound, this is a very real problem. Researchers, academics and high achieving women are especially vulnerable to this condition. But it is indeed not limited to these professions. For instance, Hayden Christensen, the actor

playing Anakin Skywalker in the beloved Star Wars series appears to suffer from very similar symptoms. He said: "I felt like I had this great thing in Star Wars that provided all these opportunities and gave me a career, but it all kind of felt a little too handed to me," he explained. "I didn't want to go through life feeling like I was just riding a wave. " So, as a response, he hasn't really done any acting for 4 years. He said: ‘If this time away is gonna be damaging to my career, then so be it. If I can come back afterward and claw my way back in, then maybe I’ll feel like I earned it. '”

The treatment of impostor syndrome includes group sittings where the patients discuss their lives and come to a sudden realization that they are not alone and this not an individual case but a common pattern among high achieving people. As they are also very keen on dismissing praise and kind words, they are instructed to be more vigilant about doing that, and try to take in all the nourishment they get from their colleagues. These are the more common ways to treat this serious condition that poisons so many people's minds.