Is impostor syndrome just your fear of success?

We hear a lot about impostor syndrome – pervasive feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt despite evident success. Many people think of this condition as a recent phenomenon, blaming it on social media where we constantly compare ourselves to others who depict themselves looking perfect.

However, this isn’t fair, because impostor syndrome has been around a long time. It was first described in 1978 by Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes, two psychotherapists at Georgia State University. They selected from their clinical practice 178 women suffering from high levels of anxiety, lack of selfconfidence and frustration because they felt unable to live up to their own incredibly high standards.

Clance and Imes were probably influenced by the work of Matina Horner, also writing in the Seventies, who coined the term “fear of success”. As president of Radcliffe College, the women’s college affiliated to Harvard, she noticed many of her undergraduates expressed a fear of succeeding lest they be seen as “less feminine”, particularly by men.

More recent studies – for example, one by Melanie Clark at Texas Tech, and another by Muhammad Atif Qureshi at Azra Naheed Medical College in Lahore – demonstrate clearly that men suffer from this condition at least as often as women.

The consequences for sufferers are distressing. Rose Sherman at Florida Atlantic University noted an association between impostor syndrome and ongoing high anxiety (“will I be found out?”), exhaustion and an overreliance on approval from everyone but themselves.

Kori Ladonna at the University of Western Ontario, who studied doctors with the syndrome, found the more severe their condition, the less responsive they were to positive feedback, thereby reinforcing their insecurities and self-doubts.

And Naijean Bernard at Southern Illinois University, in a study of 190 undergraduates (90 of them male), found those scoring high for impostor syndrome suffered not only from low mood and low self-esteem, but because they used so much energy trying to appear acceptable to others, were also disorganised and avoidant of challenging tasks they might otherwise enjoy.

If you suspect you, or someone you know, suffers from impostor syndrome, what can help?

Create opportunities to talk through problems with friends or colleagues facing similar challenges, in a safe environment where you can admit fears and failings and work together to find ways to overcome them.

When you achieve something and/or someone praises you, listen to your inner dialogue, particularly any self-denying comments. Try rephrasing your selftalk so it’s still believable, but more positive. For example, instead of “I’m not as good as they think” say: “It’s OK, I did the best I could.”