Issue 13 | November 19, 2024
IN THIS ISSUE
FEATURED ARTICLE
Is Impostor Syndrome a Fad?
THIS WEEK’S REFRAME
WHAT’S NEW AT IMPOSTOR SYNDROME INSTITUTE
Ask Me Anything – Delivering Talks & Workshops on Impostor Syndrome with Dr. Valerie Young
FEATURED RESOURCE
Do what you can with what you have where you are.
— Theodore Roosevelt
Is Impostor Syndrome a Fad?
In 2006, I got a call from Inc. magazine staff writer and now Editor at Large Leigh Buchanan, looking for help with a piece she was writing on impostor syndrome.
None of the successful, and at that time, male business owners she reached out to identified with impostor syndrome. Or if they did, no one would go on record.
How things have changed.
Today men, and it seems everyone, can’t stop talking about impostor syndrome.
Suddenly, the term is everywhere – in song lyrics, movies, television, and endless articles and social media posts.
When the first edition of my book came out in 2011, there were three others on the topic – Pauline Clance’s 1989 book and a self-published one.
When the updated version of The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women and Men came out last year, there were over 30 books, most written in the last few years.
Little wonder someone recently poo-pooed impostor syndrome as “a fad.”
I get it.
But not because of its pervasiveness.
After all, depression and substance abuse garner a lot of needed attention, but no one would think of trivializing them as fads.
Part of the problem is impostor syndrome has been used to describe everything from the discomfort of being naked in the lobby of a nudist hotel to one political party in South Africa accusing another of illegitimately taking on the name of a rival party.
More often, though, impostor syndrome has become a catch-all to describe any understandable insecurity or performance anxiety
Do these insights resonate with you? What else should we be writing about now? Tell us by emailing info@impostorsyndrome.com.
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