Imposter syndrome

Imposter syndrome is the persistent feeling that you are not as capable as others think and will one day be found out. Psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes first described the "imposter phenomenon" in 1978, in a study of high-achieving women. It is not a clinical diagnosis. It names an experience many people recognise, often despite clear evidence of their ability.

What it means

The core of imposter syndrome is a gap between what you have achieved and what you can believe about yourself. Praise does not land. Success is put down to luck, charm, timing or other people's kindness. Failure, on the other hand, feels like proof.

People often describe a cycle. A new task brings anxiety, which leads to over-preparation or last-minute panic. The task goes well, there is a brief relief, and then the success is discounted. Next time, the anxiety returns, a little stronger.

Where the idea comes from

Clance and Imes worked with women who had degrees, awards and professional standing, yet who believed they had fooled everyone. Their 1978 paper linked the feeling partly to early family messages, for example a sibling being seen as "the intelligent one" while you were praised for being sensitive or good with people, or being told you were brilliant at everything so that any struggle felt shameful.

Clance later developed this in a book, The Impostor Phenomenon (1985). Since then the term has spread well beyond psychology, and research has found the experience in men as well as women and across many professions. The word "syndrome" stuck in everyday use, even though Clance and Imes did not describe it as a disorder.

What it can look like in everyday life

Imagine you have just been promoted. Colleagues congratulate you, and you smile, while privately thinking it must have been luck or a mistake. You read every email three times before sending it. Praise feels uncomfortable rather than pleasant, because it raises the stakes of being exposed.

Or imagine you grew up as the eldest daughter in a South Asian family, where your achievements were the family's pride and "good enough" was never quite the standard. Now you work in Frankfurt, in a second or third language, as one of very few women of colour on your team. Some of the doubt comes from inside. Some of it is fed by real messages: being mistaken for a junior colleague, or having your accent remarked on. In settings like this the feeling is not only a private flaw. It is partly a response to who is made to feel they belong.

A third version is quieter: never applying for the role, because you are sure someone else deserves it more.

In person-centred counselling

In person-centred terms, imposter syndrome sounds close to conditions of worth: you are acceptable when you achieve, so any achievement must be defended or explained away. The self you show at work and the self you privately believe in drift apart.

Counselling does not try to argue you out of the feeling with lists of your successes. It offers space to explore where it comes from, what it protects you from, and what it costs you. Being accepted without having to prove anything can give the inner critic a little less power, though no approach can promise that.

The online counselling for women page explains how I work, and the self-esteem topic looks at related ground.

Related ideas

Imposter syndrome overlaps with perfectionism, but they are not the same. Perfectionism is about the standards you set. Imposter feelings are about whether you believe your achievements are real once you meet them.

It is also different from low self-esteem in general. Many people with imposter feelings feel fairly confident outside work and only doubt themselves where performance is judged. The perfectionism test may help you notice how much those standards are shaping things.

When to get more help

If the fear of being found out is leaving you exhausted, unable to sleep or dreading work most days, consider talking to a GP or doctor too. Long periods of this kind of strain can feed into burnout or low mood.