Imposter phenomenon is a term that was developed in the 1970s by psychologists Pauline Clancy and Suzanne Imes. In an article they wrote called “The Imposter Phenomenon in High Achieving Women: Dynamics and Therapeutic Intervention”, they defined it as “an internal experience of intellectual phoniness”… “despite outstanding academic and professional accomplishments” (Clancy and Imes, 1978).
Now that the definition is out of the way, let’s break it down.
Essentially it’s all about believing you’re a fraud, even if there is heaps of evidence to prove that you’re not. It’s a sneaky one because it can manifest itself in many different ways.
It could be the feeling of shame in success, thinking you don’t deserve it and that someone will eventually realise you don’t belong there.
It could be writing a song and often thinking, “surely I’ve ripped that off from somewhere, I couldn’t have written something this good”.
It could be trying something new and becoming ashamed and frustrated because you didn’t get it 100% right the first time round.
Dr Valerie Young, who has worked in the field for over 30 years, recently wrote an article with tips for handling those yucky feelings that come with imposter syndrome. She writes about making an effort to ‘think like a non-imposter’. That may seem like an odd term, but she defines a ‘non-imposter’ as someone who hasn’t experienced feelings of imposter syndrome, since of course if you experience those feelings, you are not actually an imposter, you just feel like one.
She goes on to say that non-imposters react differently to competence, failure and fear. The difference is that they don’t usually associate those feelings with shame.
When I read this, I felt so seen. I beat myself up when I fail, because in my head, each of these little failures are adding to the idea that all my successes have been flukes (refer back to my crudely drawn comic above). So it was an interesting concept to zoom out and think about how it would feel if I took shame out of the picture.
Feel free to have a read of the article here, since I’m only just scratching the surface on this topic. Below is a great TedEd video that sums up imposter syndrome super clearly (with visuals!):
Young establishes one of the common causes of these feelings to be “holding ourselves to unrealistic, unsustainable standards of competence”. This rings so true for me and I’m sure it would be a familiar feeling for many other artists (though imposter syndrome doesn’t discriminate, it’s very common for people in all kinds of fields).
I know that I get so unrealistically frustrated when I can’t immediately perfect a new skill, and I often feel unqualified for something even if I meet most (but not all) of the requirements listed. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with holding yourself to a high standard, but we’re human, we are flawed, and there is not one person I know who could keep up with being 100% perfect, 100% of the time.
SO, how do you stop feeling like an imposter?
Well, I don’t have the answer, because it’s still something I go through. Sometimes it’s helpful for me to ask myself the following question:
This question has pushed me to do things I felt I wasn’t good enough to do. It encouraged me to fill out applications for funding grants and music showcases that I believed were entirely out of my depth. And you know what? I didn’t get those funding grants or accepted into the showcases. BUT, when I was forced to answer questions like ‘what are your goals’ and ‘what are your achievements’, it allowed me to sit down and reflect on my little wins. The more times I do things in spite of not feeling good enough for them, the more I realise that I can do so much more than I give myself credit for (cue uplifting self-realisation music).
So that pretty much wraps up my little glimpse into the big bad wolf, imposter syndrome. Now I’m not an expert by any means, so if you do want to learn more about it, there are heaps of resources online to understand more. Talking about it can be really useful, whether that’s with a friend, a mentor or with a professional (Beyond Blue is a good place to start – in Australia you can call 1300 22 4636 24/7 or chat online).
It’s okay to not have all the answers.
It’s okay to fail or experience a setback.
We can only exist if we create space for ourselves to do so.
Thanks for reading,
Brooke x
References
Clance, P. R., & Imes, S. A. (1978). The imposter phenomenon in high achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 15(3), 241–247. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0086006
Young, V. (n.d). “3 Ways to Crush Conquer Impostor Syndrome”. https://impostorsyndrome.com/3-ways-to-crush-conquer-impostor-syndrome/