I'll never forget the day I first learned about the Impostor Syndrome. It was 1983. A chronic procrastinator, I was in my fourth year of a doctoral program.

Like a lot of graduate students, my status was what was commonly referred to as "A-B-D," meaning I'd completed "all but the dissertation."

I was sitting in class one day when another student rose to present the findings of a study conducted by psychology professor Pauline Clance and psychologist Suzanne Imes called The Impostor Phenomenon Among High Achieving Women (1978).

[Photo added by Douglas Eby, author of this site: John Lennon once said, “Part of me suspects that I’m a loser, and the other part of me thinks I’m God Almighty.” From post: Gifted and talented but with insecurity and low self esteem.]

In a nutshell, Clance and Imes found that many of their female clients seemed unable to internalize their accomplishments.

External proof of intelligence and ability in the form of academic excellence, degrees, recognition, promotions and the like was routinely dismissed.

Instead, success was attributed to contacts, luck, timing, perseverance, personality or otherwise having "fooled" others into thinking they were smarter and more capable than these women "knew" themselves to be.

Rather than offering assurance, each new achievement and subsequent challenge only served to intensify the ever-present fear of being...

Found Out

"Oh my God," I thought, "I've been unmasked!"

Clearly flustered, I quickly scanned the room checking to see if anyone had caught me nodding in dismayed recognition. No one had. They were too busy bobbing their own heads in like-minded unison.

It's hard to describe what it was like to discover that these vague feelings of self-doubt, angst and intellectual fraudulence had a name.

This, along with the realization that I was not alone, was utterly liberating.

This experience proved to be a profound turning point in my life, both academically and personally.  I made the life altering decision to change dissertation topics in order to study how and why so many intelligent women set themselves up to fall short.

I completed my dissertation in 1985. From here I set out to share what I'd learned with fellow "impostors" – both men and women alike – all over the country.

Little did I know then just how many of us there are…

Over 30,000 people have attended How to Feel As Bright and Capable As Everyone Seems to Think You Are: What Every Woman and Man Needs to Know About Competence, the Impostor Syndrome, and the Art of Winging It: see Overcome the Impostor Syndrome.

The people I’ve worked with come from all walks of life. They are doctors and nurses, educators and college students, lawyers and accountants, executives and administrative assistants, engineers and administrators, human service providers and human resource managers, computer programmers and program directors, architects and artists, police officers and principals.

What they share in common is a deep desire to understand why, in the face of often overwhelming evidence to the contrary, they continue to doubt themselves, their competence, and their abilities.

Most importantly though, they want to discover how to overcome their deep-seated feelings of self-doubt so they may finally come to see themselves as the bright, capable people they really are!

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Her online program :

The Confidence Project

“You’re intelligent and successful… at least that’s what everyone says. So how come you don’t always feel that way?

“Instead of feeling satisfaction, with every achievement you’re filled with anxiety you’ll be unmasked as an incompetent fraud…

“But it doesn’t have to be that way.”

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Also see more articles by Valerie Young

Since escaping her corporate job in 1995 to found Changing Course, "Dreamer in Residence" Dr. Valerie Young's career advice has appeared around the world...

Changing Course programs include :

Finding Your True Calling

Impostor Syndrome Self-Help Workshop

Making Dreams Happen Audio Program

Profiting From Your Passions Coach Program

See the main site for more programs, articles and other resources :
              Changing Course

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This is a publication of Talent Development Resources

Also see related site Personal Growth Information

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  Related Talent Development Resources pages:

Impostor syndrome....

Impostor syndrome 2 : quotes articles books

Self-criticism......

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