Imposter Syndrome and The ‘As-If’ Personality in Analytical Psychology

Susan Schwartz, drawing creatively on Jung and French psychoanalytical traditions, has produced a beautiful and insightful book on the 'as-if' personality. The study uniquely combines theoretical and clinical dimensions so that one gets a full feel for the richness of actual therapy with these most challenging of patients. The text is replete with exquisite quotes that set the emotional tone. This volume, The Imposter Syndrome and the 'As-If' Personality in Analytical Psychology: The Fragility of Self, is at the cutting edge of Jungian and psychoanalytic thinking. Henry Abramovitch, Founding President, Israel Institute of Jungian Psychology, in honour of Erich Neumann & Preofessor Emeritus, Tel Aviv University. Susan Schwartz's compelling and timely study of the 'as-if' personality explores the phenomenology of a person who exists unseen, as if living behind a wall. Dr Schwartz captures with great empathy the struggles of both individuals and collectives to cope with feelings of acute estrangement, isolation and loneliness by uncovering the underlying emptiness that negates depth and substance. Drawing on the works of C.G. Jung, Andre Green, Donald Winnicott, Julia Kristeva, Judith Butler and others, Dr Schwartz describes the 'as-if' person as stuck between the mirror and the mask and trapped in personal, cultural and historical wounds that include unfinished mourning. She suggests that integration can occur by differentiating untouched, unacceptable 'shadow' aspects that open creative dialogues in order to venture beyond the 'as-if' facade. This book is essential reading for making sense of the effects of our turbulent psycho-social environment of post-COVID, climate change, environmental disasters and war-torn zones that all exacerbate global trauma. Dr Elizabeth Brodersen, Accredited Training Analyst and Supervisor, C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich, and co-editor of Jungian Perspectives on Indeterminate States: Betwixt and Between Borders, 2021. Susan Schwartz addresses the popular topic of the impostor syndrome. In an expanded, careful and exhaustively researched way, she presents reflections on the topic from not only classic Jungian, post-Jungian, and psychoanalytic authors, but also from scholars of philosophy and sociology. The clear and precise description of such a personality, named by the author as 'as if', helps us to identify the massive existence of these symptoms in our practices and in the narcissistic and fragmented Western culture in which we currently live. This gives the reader, although facing difficulties in the diagnosis, treatment and transference involved with the syndrome, the possibility of envisioning a kind of 'cure' for the subjects who seek in Jungian symbolic analysis a way to experience and better relate with their psychic multiplicity. Luciana Ximenez, Jungian analyst in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and co-director of the online program, Thiasos - Shared Imagination Workshop