Impostor Syndrome?
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Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. (v. 10)
According to the Oxford English Dictionary an impostor is “….a deceiver, swindler, cheat; now chiefly, one who assumes a false character, or passes himself off as someone other than he really is.”
Their first recorded example of the word impostor appears in a letter of January 26, 1586, from King James VI of Scotland to Elizabeth I of England, regarding his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots who would soon be executed. James wants to make it clear that only certain individuals have the right to represent his opinion on the matter of his mother’s impending execution. And so, he writes, “I pray you not to take me to be a chameleon, but by the contrary, them to be malicious impostures, as surely they are….”
In so writing, James is being something of an impostor himself, seeming to plead for his mother’s life when it would be much more convenient for her to be executed, leaving the way open for him to become James the First when Elizabeth died many years later.
There’s something exciting about someone who is a true “great impostor,” like the legendary Frank Abagnale, whose story is told in the 2002 movie Catch Me If You Can. Abagnale claimed that he had successfully posed as an airline pilot, an emergency room physician, and as a lawyer who became a prosecutor in Louisiana. Some have questioned the veracity of his story. Perhaps he was really an impostor when it came to being an impostor.
Of course, we’re talking about people who are trying to be impostors. But there are some who are perfectly qualified to be what they’ve trained to be, yet somehow feel they’re faking it. Over fifty years ago two researchers, Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes, discovered while talking they’d both grown up knowing in advance they’d flunked every test they ever took, even though they got high marks. Having achieved advanced degrees with honor they began to compare notes, and discovered both felt that they’d always felt they didn’t deserve to hold their positions, and that sooner or later someone would unmask them. They began to test these feelings with some of their students, and eventually co-authored a paper titled “The Impostor Phenomenon in High Achieving Women: Dynamics and Therapeutic Intervention.
The paper itself was rejected may times, but it finally appeared in 1978 in Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, and Practice, and though it was in the age long before the internet, the idea took off like a viral meme! Many others reported this nagging feeling that they were faking it, and someday someone would unmask them. Many of these were famous and successful people, like Maya Angelou and Neil Gaiman.
Some of these people reported that they had a sibling who was referred to as “the smart one.” Others were constantly criticized by parents and/or teachers. Still they felt like their background precluded them from being successful, but there it was, they were.
Somewhere along the way “The Impostor Phenomenon” became “The Impostor Syndrome,” giving it the cachet of a medical diagnosis, instead of just a nagging feeling. And nowadays many insist it doesn’t really exist.
The truth is probably somewhere in between. Think about it. Have you ever had the feeling you were out of your depth, and that though people looked on you as an expert, you were really an impostor, faking your way along, and that sooner or later someone would unmask you and expose you for who you really were?
I have to wonder if this is a church condition. How many successful Sunday School teachers, board chairs, cake bakers, and church cleaners insist they do a rotten job when everyone else is extraordinary pleased with their service?
I bring this all up because I got to thinking about how Moses is described at his death on Mount Nebo in such glowing terms — My goodness! Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.
And yet — and yet — this was a person who should have been killed at birth but survived through no skill of his own. He grew up in Pharaoh’s household, yet somehow must have felt like he didn’t belong. Later, when circumstances caused him to flee to the wilderness, where he became a shepherd, he received a call from God speaking in the burning bush to become the agent for setting his people free — yet he insisted he wasn’t good enough, that he couldn’t speak well enough, that that Pharoah wouldn’t listen to him.
And later, after plagues and the Red Sea, after manna rained down from heaven and water flowed from the rock, when God’s favor was shown through many mighty works, Moses despaired that the people would not listen to him, that they didn’t respect him, that they were turning against him.
It’s as if Moses thought he was some sort of impostor. Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. So maybe there’s a little room for us to doubt ourselves once in a while without assuming we’re some sort of impostor.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary an impostor is “….a deceiver, swindler, cheat; now chiefly, one who assumes a false character, or passes himself off as someone other than he really is.”
Their first recorded example of the word impostor appears in a letter of January 26, 1586, from King James VI of Scotland to Elizabeth I of England, regarding his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots who would soon be executed. James wants to make it clear that only certain individuals have the right to represent his opinion on the matter of his mother’s impending execution. And so, he writes, “I pray you not to take me to be a chameleon, but by the contrary, them to be malicious impostures, as surely they are….”
In so writing, James is being something of an impostor himself, seeming to plead for his mother’s life when it would be much more convenient for her to be executed, leaving the way open for him to become James the First when Elizabeth died many years later.
There’s something exciting about someone who is a true “great impostor,” like the legendary Frank Abagnale, whose story is told in the 2002 movie Catch Me If You Can. Abagnale claimed that he had successfully posed as an airline pilot, an emergency room physician, and as a lawyer who became a prosecutor in Louisiana. Some have questioned the veracity of his story. Perhaps he was really an impostor when it came to being an impostor.
Of course, we’re talking about people who are trying to be impostors. But there are some who are perfectly qualified to be what they’ve trained to be, yet somehow feel they’re faking it. Over fifty years ago two researchers, Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes, discovered while talking they’d both grown up knowing in advance they’d flunked every test they ever took, even though they got high marks. Having achieved advanced degrees with honor they began to compare notes, and discovered both felt that they’d always felt they didn’t deserve to hold their positions, and that sooner or later someone would unmask them. They began to test these feelings with some of their students, and eventually co-authored a paper titled “The Impostor Phenomenon in High Achieving Women: Dynamics and Therapeutic Intervention.
The paper itself was rejected may times, but it finally appeared in 1978 in Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, and Practice, and though it was in the age long before the internet, the idea took off like a viral meme! Many others reported this nagging feeling that they were faking it, and someday someone would unmask them. Many of these were famous and successful people, like Maya Angelou and Neil Gaiman.
Some of these people reported that they had a sibling who was referred to as “the smart one.” Others were constantly criticized by parents and/or teachers. Still they felt like their background precluded them from being successful, but there it was, they were.
Somewhere along the way “The Impostor Phenomenon” became “The Impostor Syndrome,” giving it the cachet of a medical diagnosis, instead of just a nagging feeling. And nowadays many insist it doesn’t really exist.
The truth is probably somewhere in between. Think about it. Have you ever had the feeling you were out of your depth, and that though people looked on you as an expert, you were really an impostor, faking your way along, and that sooner or later someone would unmask you and expose you for who you really were?
I have to wonder if this is a church condition. How many successful Sunday School teachers, board chairs, cake bakers, and church cleaners insist they do a rotten job when everyone else is extraordinary pleased with their service?
I bring this all up because I got to thinking about how Moses is described at his death on Mount Nebo in such glowing terms — My goodness! Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.
And yet — and yet — this was a person who should have been killed at birth but survived through no skill of his own. He grew up in Pharaoh’s household, yet somehow must have felt like he didn’t belong. Later, when circumstances caused him to flee to the wilderness, where he became a shepherd, he received a call from God speaking in the burning bush to become the agent for setting his people free — yet he insisted he wasn’t good enough, that he couldn’t speak well enough, that that Pharoah wouldn’t listen to him.
And later, after plagues and the Red Sea, after manna rained down from heaven and water flowed from the rock, when God’s favor was shown through many mighty works, Moses despaired that the people would not listen to him, that they didn’t respect him, that they were turning against him.
It’s as if Moses thought he was some sort of impostor. Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. So maybe there’s a little room for us to doubt ourselves once in a while without assuming we’re some sort of impostor.
