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Imposter Syndrome

"The “imposter syndrome” strikes people everywhere, especially high achievers. It makes them discount their success attributing it to luck, not real ability. Along with it comes the fear that anytime they could be found out. The more successful you get, the greater the inner stress. Now people have expectations of you that you may not be able to meet. Now each decision you make should be perfect because there’s much to lose." Simran Bhargava, The Imposter Syndrome: Feeling Like A Fraud

Entitled to Be Exceptional by Douglas Eby

Although gifted men may also experience a self-defeating aversion to expressing feelings or aspects of themselves that might separate them from others, gifted women, according to a number of sources, are more acutely sensitive to fitting in with social expectations, and may engage in a denial of their capabilities, experience difficulty in embracing their talents and have a compromised sense of entitlement to be exceptional.
 

Gifted Women: Identity and Expression by Douglas Eby

Many gifted women, in addition, may have constraining experiences because of gender, such as being seen as threatening to some men -- and other women -- in positions of authority. Some may feel pain at being different from "the way women are supposed to be" and have a need to hide their abilities to "fit in" with more "normal" society. Some women experience being called "gifted" as an uncomfortable burden, and will avoid even allowing the thought they may, in fact, be gifted. One fairly common reaction is feeling oneself to be an "impostor."
 

Helping Gifted Students With Stress Management (ERIC Digest #488) by Leslie S. Kaplan

The pressure to excel, accompanied by other concerns such as feeling different, self-doubt (the "imposter" syndrome), and the need to prove their giftedness can drain the energy of gifted students...
 

If I'm So Successful Why Do I Feel Like a Fake: The Impostor Phenomenon by Joan C. Harvey and Cynthia Katz

(Out of print) When people advance too quickly they can be lauded too extravagantly thereby creating a gap between how others see them and how they see themselves
 

The Imposter Phenomenon by Sue Wick

Have you ever felt that you did not deserve the professional status you have achieved or the recognition you have received for your career accomplishments?  Do you wonder whether being admitted to graduate school or being offered an exciting job was just a mistake on the part of others who will eventually figure that out and expose your inadequacy?  ...recommends a three-point exercise for those who recognize that they have impostor traits...
 

The Imposter Syndrome by Lee Jampolsky

It is surprising how tenaciously negative thoughts manifest themselves in and attack even the most "successful " people.  We can define this syndrome as a collection of feelings of inadequacy that stem from the belief that one is insufficient as a person, and unable to be proficient at an activity that individual wants or needs to do. These feelings persist even when all information that he or she receives indicate that the opposite is true...
 

The Many Sides of Being Gifted by Rita Richardson

Your gifted child may realize that she has been "blessed," but at the same time may be suffering from the "imposter" syndrome -- "Am I really that good?" crops up as a constant refrain...
 

Too Smart for good? by Michael Duff  (requires free registration)

Some of the most brilliant people I know secretly believe they're stupid. They're always rushing from place to place, agonizing over tests, scrambling to find rare books, poised over their computer screens waiting for grades to be posted...
 

Last updated April 09, 2008