impostor syndrome is a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their skills, talents or accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a "fraud".
of course it's about alienation, not that they're lazy or inherently bad in some way:
"If you don't like your job, you don't strike. Just go in every day and do it really half assed. That's the American way!" - comrade Homer Simpson
Nah, I disagree. Imposter syndrome is very real, at least among mathematicians and I'd assume other mentally taxing fields. It's very easy to convince yourself you know exactly no math and why on earth did anyone let you into this grad program anyway, clearly the admissions committee made a huge mistake because everyone else obviously knows what they're doing, especially Phil who always asks lots of profound questions in class and says the homework sets are easy. Not that this is based on personal experience or anything...
(It is. It is based on personal experience. Turns out, everyone else was also confused, they just nodded along in class because class is scary. And during like my third breakdown in his office, my algebra professor literally told me that Phil was actually full of shit and his questions were designed to make him look smart.)
Anyway, that was a fun little nostalgia trip back to my first year in grad school! Point is, imposter syndrome exists.
Agreed tbh. It's only difficult in the interviews, the jobs are mostly pretty samey.
yeah academia is such a shit show compared to the 'real world'.
I am in a phd program and think about dropping out all the time, and then i have my "real" job and I realize that i know waaayyy more than i realize. it's a total mindfuck.
capitalism is a fuck but impostor syndrome is very real and trying to convince people its not is extremely unhelpful
Yeah I don't want to be that guy but not everything has to be framed exactly in terms of marxist principles.
Though, if you really want to, frame it as imposter syndrome arising out of a desperate fear of not succeeding because then you will go hungry and be a worthless husk in a sink or swim society. That vulnerability is different from alienation.
Lol I wish it was fake, but it's very real. But it's not a very widespread thing I'd argue, and it's also used outside of the context of jobs a lot and I think it really holds up in non-work contexts
I think what OP means is that the perceived causes of imposter syndrome are wrong, rather than imposter syndrome itself. We've been alienated from our jobs because of capitalism, and all our frustration with work essentially stems from that. However, imposter syndrome is just another trick to explain away the real cause and re-direct our frustrations on some intangible concept.
Quality Improvement ghouls only make this worse when the boss gives them unilateral control of going thru all your shit to help you be "more efficient" by basically making you feel like you don't know how to do your job when this asshole knows nothing about your job. When called out they'll say they "just wanna learn! teehee" It's all designed to cut costs or accuse you of time theft etc.
SCUM
watched it in real-time with several individuals and you're absolutely right
I agree with @Good_Username. I'm in Grad school, but I also have a lot of experience in my field. I get asked questions all the time that I answer, and I think I have a good answer for them. I help make things, design, and develop content. But there's always a voice in the back of my head that anybody could come in and challenge my ideas, assumptions, and activities and I'd be left...speechless? In grad school, it is heartening to see theorists writing or advocating for the same things I agree with (meaning I'm in good company, I guess?); but when I write papers I feel like a big fraud sometimes. Like do I know this, do I truly agree with this? As you progress into certain fields that are based on knowledge, you can't escape a sense of uncertainty. At least with the way social sciences are measured statistically, you have to account for so much variability in things.
I know what you mean about half-assedly doing work, I do that all the time too; but I think that's just humans being exhausted or losing any interest in their jobs. Let's be real not every job is interesting or the person is not a good fit — hopefully under communism that would be very different.
I don't think it's so much that it's not real, it's just a symptom of a human being recognizing the false meritocracy.
Like, yeah, the hierarchy is bullshit. There probably is someone who could do your job much better, and they were never given a chance.
You just have to confront that reality and internalize it. You don't "deserve" what you have, no one does, or can. The entire idea runs contrary to all human nature.
What turns people into monsters is trying to convince themselves that they do deserve it, that the filthy people beneath them deserve everything they get, because they didn't work hard enough. Nothing is more toxic to class solidarity, and it's where PMC psychos come from.
If you're being affected by imposter syndrome, look at the former president and his fail children. This system doesn't reward people based on "merit."
""imposter syndrome" is fake, the vast majority of workers under capitalism have abandoned their professional responsibilities" - a Gay Wrath review.
Firstly, we must begin with the title. It's inflammatory and i don't agree with the concept of people just "abandoned their professional responsibilities" in regards to feeling like an imposter...what lol.
Body text eh... i think i see a glimmer of what you're getting at - i think people would feel less alienated and like an imposter if they didn't feel they had to be held to the standard of Expert Who Knows All the Things or doing 6 people's jobs at once because capitalism has overworked them. If our society was more communal and treated us like less cogs in the machine, maybe we'd be less alienated sure, yeah, i see what you're getting at and it's probable that's true.
The homer quote... i don't really know what you're getting at here. People are half-assing their jobs because they feel alienated from them? I mean yes, that's true. But that's not really related to what Imposter Syndrome actually is. Imposter Syndrome is deeply anxious, you don't half-ass things because you can't do any better - you're feeling like nothing you can do is good enough because you've been taught your whole life that you aren't good enough. Even if you're materially very successful.
Overall i'll give this post a very generous 6/10 because i enjoyed reading the comments and the actual core of your post is decent if you ignore all the bad parts.
Thanks for posting on chapo.chat, please post again!
-- Gay Wrath
