海角大神

In my first week of graduate school, the new students played a game in which we had to name the most famous books we had never read. 鈥淚鈥檝e never made it all the way through 鈥楥larissa,鈥欌�� one of my peers admitted. 鈥淏archester Towers,鈥� another volunteered. 鈥淐onfessio Amantis.鈥� I was listening with an increasing sense of embarrassment. I hadn鈥檛 read 鈥淢oby-Dick鈥� or 鈥淛ane Eyre鈥� and I鈥檇 never even heard of the 鈥淐onfessio鈥� whatever. What was I doing in graduate school? What kind of mistake had they made admitting me, who so clearly didn鈥檛 belong there?

It was a vivid experience of 颈尘辫辞蝉迟辞谤听蝉测苍诲谤辞尘别, a term that was added to Merriam-Webster鈥檚 dictionary this year: 鈥減ersistent doubt concerning one鈥檚 abilities or accomplishments accompanied by the fear of being exposed as a fraud despite evidence of one鈥檚 ongoing success.鈥� It has become a buzzword over the past decade, with more than 50 books and thousands of articles published about it.聽

Skimming through these articles, two things are clear. First, many people don鈥檛 know how to spell impostor. The word retains its Latin ending, like curator or spectator. Though -or is the preferred form, Fowler鈥檚 Modern English Usage notes that it is now written with -er nearly 50% of the time, so insisting on the -or spelling is a losing battle. 聽

And second, many people periodically feel like frauds. When psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes coined the term (as the 鈥渋mpostor phenomenon鈥�) in 1978, they thought it was 鈥減articularly prevalent ... among high achieving women.鈥� They interviewed female graduate students, lawyers, and professors who 鈥減ersist in believing that they are really not bright and have fooled anyone who thinks otherwise.鈥� 聽

Impostor syndrome is not just experienced by professional women. Anyone who does not conform to society鈥檚 stereotype of what a 鈥渓eader鈥� or a 鈥渟uccess鈥� looks like is at extra risk of feeling like an impostor. People of color 鈥渁re particularly vulnerable to this debilitating sensation,鈥� journalist Jolie A. Doggett reports, as are people who identify as LGBTQ, and those who come from working-class backgrounds. With so many different 鈥渁t risk鈥� groups, it is perhaps not surprising that 70%-80% of Americans admit to having felt impostor syndrome at one time or another. 聽

If a majority of us feel like frauds at least some of the time, though, is it really a 鈥渟yndrome鈥�? Or is it a normal, if uncomfortable, part of being human? Whether the term identifies a real 鈥減henomenon鈥� or pathologizes an emotion many people feel from time to time, impostor syndrome certainly deserves a place in the dictionary.聽

I would find a quote from 鈥淛ane Eyre鈥� to end on, but I still haven鈥檛 read it.