You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
PSYCHOANALYTIC STUDIES OF THE IMPOSTOR have traditionally focused on intrapsychic conflicts. The purpose of this paper is to provide an additional dimension by reviewing the literature and clinical core material from an interpersonal perspective.
Accounting for the ability of the impostor to assume a false identity, Greenacre (1958a) notes that it "… appears that the fraud was successful only because many others as well as the perpetrator had a hunger to believe in the fraud …" She then says, "To this extent those on whom the fraudulence is imposed are not only victims but unconscious conspirators." Unfortunately, this theme is never developed further, and the possibility of an interpersonal approach to this problem is subsequently ignored.
The psychoanalytic study of the impostor began in 1925 with a paper by Karl Abraham (1925) entitled, "The history of an impostor in the light of psychoanalytical knowledge." Abraham saw the patient twice, once in 1918 when he was in the army and a second time when he was a civilian five years later.
The original psychoanalytic investigation had been ordered by the presiding judge of a military court. The prisoner had been found guilty on a number of serious charges including desertion during war-time, falsely assuming higher military rank, and a number of thefts, forgeries and frauds. At the first examination Abraham had concluded that the prisoner's condition was unalterable and chronic.
Because of a general amnesty, the prisoner was released in 1918, but again arrested on some of the same kinds of charges in 1919. However, for a variety of reasons he was not imprisoned and was only brought to trial in 1923. In the interim he had committed no