The “Impostor Syndrome” Myth

A Symptom of a Performative Identity

“Impostor Syndrome” has become a widely used label, but its current use diverges sharply from its original purpose. Coined in 1978 to describe a specific pattern among high-achieving women, it was never intended to become a broad identity marker. Today, however, the label is often applied uncritically, further pathologising a natural developmental response and obscuring the deeper issue: the conflict between an adapted, performative self and one’s authentic inner life. Rather than illuminating this dynamic, the term is now used to popularise the defense as a badge of honour —masking the very disconnection it emerged to describe. Without understanding the origins of the feeling, the label becomes another form of performance. This appendix reframes the impostor experience not as a syndrome to be fixed, but as a signal calling us back to presence and integration.