
Impostor syndrome, it’s so hot right now!
~Closes paperback copy of Being and Nothingness~
I don’t know what to write about. I don’t know what to write about. I don’t know what to write about. I don’t know what to write about. I don’t know what to write about. I don’t know what to write about. I don’t know what to write about. I don’t know what to write about. I don’t know what to write about. I don’t know what to write about.
Breathe.
{Pause}
Breathe.
Impostor syndrome is a psychological phenomenon that manifests in high-achieving individuals who are plagued by an overwhelming sense of malfeasance and dread. They fail to internalize their accomplishments, and are crippled by a persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud”. In the 1970’s, clinical psychologists Pauline R. Clance and Suzanne A. Imes went on one too many acid trips — the byproduct of which was a theory responsible for desecrating the minds of future creative geniuses. I don’t believe the irony was lost on these two brilliant women.
The ~alternative syndrome can best be identified when an individual remains convinced of his/her ineptitude — despite external evidence of their competence and success. Proof of success is dismissed as luck, timing, or as a result of deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent and competent than they believe themselves to be. It’s the anti-Kane psychological disorder.
Now, you might be wondering, “do I have imposter syndrome?” Worry not dear readers, for I bequeath to you a Buzzfeedian list:
8 easy ways to tell if you have impostor syndrome
1. Diligence- do you spend countless hours perfecting your craft, with the hopes of accumulating wealth and status, and most of all, recognition and acceptance from your peers?
2. Are you Ronnie Feig?
3. Feeling of being phony- do you often compromise your values and contort your intellectual and artistic merits so as to better align with the tastes and demands of your superiors?
4. Are you Karl Lagerfeld?
5. Use of Charm- do you leverage your self-proclaimed wit and charm to social climb — always acquiescing to the gatekeepers and tastemakers whose orbit you always seem to gravitate?
6. Are you Ricardo Tisci/Virgil Abloh?
7. Avoiding displays of confidence- do you find yourself in a perpetual state of self-loathing, constantly questioning your intellect and creative output? Do you often succumb to the grippling tyranny of your own thoughts — where the only inkling of salvation from the void comes from the desperate and asinine idea of the archetypal tortured genius?
8. Are you me?
*Please note*
Impostor syndrome is not to be conflated with the Dunning–Kruger effect, which describes the president of the united states of ‘merica.