It’s not ‘Imposter Syndrome’, it’s a Sick System

You are not an imposter and there is no syndrome.

‘Imposter Syndrome’ is not a syndrome. In fact, that phrase is a huge part of the problem.

It’s telling that ‘Imposter Syndrome’ isn’t even what the original academics coined. Dr’s Clancy and Imes called it Imposter Phenomenon in their 1978 article. This linguistic twisting speaks to another, larger problem: the sick system that justifies its own behaviour and encourages you to pathologize yours.

Let’s unpack this

(If you’re unfamiliar with the phrase ‘Imposter Syndrome’, I’ve written a short overview on my site, with links to further resources.)

Imposter Phenomenon is real and it can be debilitating. This experience can have a huge impact on your career and success.

Imposter feelings can show up in a variety of ways. It can look like playing small, not speaking out, rationalising your and others’ behaviour, then staying up all night replaying the interactions in your head and ruminating. This of course leads to poor sleep, you wake up feeling doubtful and weary. This is how you go into your day. And the cycle repeats.

Knowing how you got here is helpful information for getting to where you want to be. Imposter feelings have many sources and you might relate to some or all of these:

☑️ Family environment: Strict or critical upbringings where achievement was strongly emphasized

☑️ Sense of belonging: Feeling like an outsider or experiences involving group-exclusion

☑️ Social pressure: Group dynamics where approval and achievement are tied together and valued above other needs

☑️ Your personality: Tendencies toward anxiousness, overthinking, perfectionism and people-pleasing

These aren’t the only sources, but they are the biggies! I personally relate to all of these, with stories that range from ‘well at least now I can laugh about it’ to the heartbreaking and the utterly unfair. If you’re still reading this, I’m sure you can relate too.

Imposter Phenomenon is a defence mechanism. It’s a Flight response that drives you to achieve things and protects you from feeling failure. And also from feeling your accomplishments. You tell yourself it’s still not enough, it’s not earned, it’s not real. It convinces you to keep swimming into a ceaseless riptide. To keep visiting the empty well of approval. To never give up on attempting to boil the ocean.

Pick your water-related metaphor.

The point is, our subconscious minds will prioritise feeling safe over feeling happy, but it doesn’t have to be this way. You deserve to have both.

When it feels like you can’t be both safe and happy

When we feel out of place or like we’re not good enough, it’s often because we are sensitive to the way that other people are treating us. We assume that they are right, and that there is a problem, or ‘syndrome’, and we sometimes conclude that it’s us that is abnormal. This keeps us small and feeling unworthy.

If you’re feeling stressed, confused, burned out or worse with a employer or partner, it’s possible that it’s not about you. It’s possible that you’re in a sick system.

What is a Sick System?

First introduced in 2010 by blogger Issendai on LiveJournal, a sick system is a relationship dynamic that is perpetuated by mistrust, uncertainty, unspoken expectations, unreasonable demands and psychological (and sometimes physical) danger. Sick systems are created to keep employees or partners loyal to someone or something, without those with power or influence doing the hard work of providing fair, equitable treatment, a nurturing and safe environment, or the conditions for growth and advancement.

In Issendai’s original LiveJournal post, the four basic rules of creating a sick system are outlined. I’ve summarised them below:

1. Keep people too busy to think — Thinking is dangerous and you don’t want people stopping to notice how bad it really is.
2. Keep people tired — Tired people don’t think clearly. Everything gets to stay the same if nobody has the energy or effort to fix the system, much less see what’s really going on.
3. Keep people emotionally involved — Create an extreme loyalty culture — make sure loyalty is tied to personal worthiness, create dependencies between participants around successes and failures, and create seniority hierarchies.
4. Reward intermittently — this fosters addiction and dependency, which is exactly what you need to keep the system going.

Some sick systems exist not out of malice, but ignorance, pressure, or other causes. That is, the people participating in them may not intend to cause harm. This might be the learned response to crisis, oppression, scarcity, or other factors.

Regardless, the impact is often the same. The people within the system are taught to blame themselves rather than disrupt the system. This is reinforced and rewarded by others.

• We’re taught that the reason we didn’t get promoted is because we’re not good enough.
• We’re taught that the communication issues are our issues, because we’re the one with the accent or ‘unpronounceable’ name.
• We’re taught to speak up, but only softly and when prompted, lest we take up too much time or space.
• We’re positioned carefully by others so that our differences don’t become too marked, until they need to proudly mark ‘inclusivity’ boxes.

There are a million ways we’re taught this message. And so we may inadvertently sing it ourselves. Until we don’t even notice the subtle ways that the language we use works to keep the system in place, and to keep ourselves beholden to it. At the expense of our own safety, happiness and wellbeing.

When I hear ‘Imposter Syndrome’, I pledge to unpack it. When it’s born of those very real feelings of insecurity, I will offer alternatives, such as ‘Imposterism’, ‘Imposter Phenomenon’, or simply naming the feeling.

And when it’s actually the sick system of our society tricking us into thinking the burden is ours to bear, I will call that out. And also offer alternatives, through my words and my ways of being in the world.

Now that you have already come this far, what will you do?

Kim is a life-long overthinker who has overcome many challenges to turn her mental energy into a super skill for getting things done and feeling great about it. She’s on a mission to help others do the same. Join the expert thinkers who are gaining clarity and focus with weekly insights in the Hold That Thought newsletter.