IMPOSTOR SYNDROME

               

   ‘Have you ever felt like the things that you achieved or the position that you’ve reached doesn’t belong to you?’ or ‘Did you feel like you were playing fake and someone was going to unmask you? If you feel  that way, you might be experiencing impostor syndrome.Impostor syndrome, also known as imposter phenomenon, is the psychological condition of a person who always feels doubtful about his accomplishments and considers himself as a fraud despite the contrary evidence.According to Ellen Hendriksen, who is an author for Scientific American and psychologist at Boston University, Impostor Syndrome comes in two common types which are ‘ I’m a fake’ and ‘I got lucky’.

 The type I’m a fake is based on the most common characteristic of Imposter Syndrome which is the feeling of incompetence.The individuals who are categorized in this type often feel that what they achieved was not the result of their effort or intelligence; It was luck or something else.Therefore, they usually live with fear of being unmasked or discovered by others. Amy Cuddy, who is a professor at Harvard University now, experienced this situation for a long time and told her story on Ted Talk.She said that her IQ level had dropped after a car accident when she was 19.As a result of it, she had lost confidence in herself and what she had succeeded in even though her academic success indicates the reverse.One day she explained this situation to her professor by saying ‘ I do not belong here and I’m playing fake, one day someone will reveal that I’m not capable enough to be here’.Her professor advised her to fake it until she make it; In time,she really became what she wanted to be and changed the sentence with ‘Fake it until you become it.’

 The second type of Impostor Syndrome is ‘I got lucky’.Individuals who experience this type mostly relate their success to chance or something else not their hard-work,effort or talents.With that, because these persons think that they became successful and achieved high positions in their career by luck,they usually feel pressure to work harder than others not to lose their position whether they need to work or not.As a consequence of this continious hard-work and trying to achieve the best they can, individuals who are in this category have more tendency to be perfectionists.Moreover, most of the people who are in this group are academicians, students from well-known universities and successful managers.It means, having concrete evidence as indicators of their success or getting rewards in their fields doesn’t convince them to believe they are sufficiently good at what they do.

 According to the psychologists, the best way to overcome the imposter syndrome is talking to  others who experience the same feelings. The reason is, it helps to acknowledge your feelings and understand your strengths and weaknesses but above all, you will realize successful people around you who are considered as the persons in unachievable positions or much better than others are sharing the same feelings;this realization may convince you to accept yourself as a person with weaknesses, not a someone who always has to be perfect. 

                                                                                              Sueda  Dinç