What Is Imposter Syndrome?

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We live in an age of specialization in which we often defer to the opinions of "experts."

Such deference is perhaps rooted in the feeling that we cannot trust ourselves.

We often suffer from an imposter syndrome that hampers our independence while leaving us skeptical of others.

To C.M. - a reminder.

We live in an age of specialization in which the counsel of professionals is sought for everything from parenting and relationship advice to matters of health and well-being to questions of public policy, finances, education, and even personal development. And while the proliferation of apparent experts raises interesting questions about our desire for authority figures to whom we can defer when challenges arise, it has been accompanied by an equally fascinating increase in skepticism regarding the reliability of the very persons and institutions upon whom we have come to rely.

On the one hand, it would seem, we are desperate to believe that there are people out there who know what they are doing. On the other, we refuse to believe it. What accounts for the dissonance?

I was reflecting upon this very question while rereading the Confessions of St. Augustine last fall. For readers unacquainted with the great works of Late Antiquity, the Confessions is a sort of intellectual autobiography written 1500 years ago by a man who, as a Catholic bishop, was an eminent authority in his day and has exerted an enormous influence over Western thought ever since. In it, Augustine examines his life from........

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