Imposter Syndrome: Reframing Self-Doubt in Medicine

Abstract

Since it was first described in 1978, there have been over 15,000 publications in the academic and lay press on “imposter syndrome,” a form of distress commonly observed in high-achieving professionals. With the best of intentions, clinicians and researchers have approached this phenomenon with the same medical framework used to diagnose, prevent, and treat illness. In this paper, we review how the concept of the imposter syndrome evolved and argue that conceptualizing this phenomenon as a medical condition to be treated on an individual basis limits our understanding of the phenomenon and our ability to relieve the distress it causes.

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