In the Mind column in the New York Times (2/5, F5),
Benedict Carey writes that "[s]ocial psychologists
have studied what they call the impostor phenomenon
since at least the 1970s, when a pair of therapists at
Georgia State University used the phrase to describe
the internal experience of a group of high-achieving
women who had a secret sense they were not as capable
as others thought." Since that time, "researchers have
documented such fears in adults of all ages, as well
as adolescents." Originally thought to be "a
reflection of an anxious personality or a cultural
stereotype," impostorism "appear[s] to alter people's
goals in unexpected ways, and may also protect them
against subconscious self-delusions." At other times,
however, "feeling like a fraud amounts to more than
the stirrings of an anxious temperament, or the desire
to project a protective humility." Impostorism also
"reflects a respect for the limits of one's own
abilities, and an intuition that only a true impostor
would be afraid to ask for help."



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