imposting

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We tell ourselves stories in order to not live.

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We tell ourselves stories in order to live.

We look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson in the murder of five. We interpret what we see, select the most workable of the multiple choices. We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the "ideas" with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience.

Joan Didion, The White Album

It is often assumed that delusion is mostly in the direction of one affirming false positives to themselves, shaping their perceived lived experience to suit their expectations while the objective reality is less fancy.

However, research shows that institutional structures may also induce impostor syndrome, especially in members of marginalized communities. The stories we tell ourselves might reinforce defeatist beliefs that cripple our livelihood.