82 REFLECTIONS ON CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP
birthday. Aided by gray streaks in his hair and a belief that a uniform
is the best prop in selling a scam, the 16 - year - old Abagnale, who was
raised in Bronxville, started posing as a Pan Am pilot. This disguise
allowed him to travel the globe for free and aided his check - cashing
con game. Abagnale was like a chameleon, able to adapt to any sur-
rounding. Even when he was apprehended he would often fi nd a way
out. While being extradited from Sweden to the United States, he
escaped from an airplane. Later, while serving time in an Atlanta prison,
he escaped by talking his way out. Today, however, Abagnale is a legiti-
mate businessman. One of the world ’ s foremost self - taught authorities
on fraud, he is a consultant for Fortune 500 companies, which he helps
to keep up - to - date on scam technology. He has also been a consultant
for the FBI.Other Kinds of ImpostorThere is a rather unusual psychiatric classifi cation of imposture, the
M ü nchausen syndrome, a condition named after Baron M ü nchhausen,
a mythical German soldier – adventurer who lived in the eighteenth
century and became known as the hero of many tall tales (Lehmann,
1975 ; Swanson, 1981 ). In this condition, the medical fi eld is chosen as
the stage on which these individuals play out their confl icts centered on
aggression and dependency. The condition is characterized by repeated
fabrication of clinically convincing symptoms and a false medical and
social history. The affected person exaggerates or creates symptoms of
illness in order to gain investigation, treatment, attention, sympathy, and
comfort from medical personnel.What makes an impostor?
The earliest known clinical paper on the impostor was written by Karl
Abraham (1955) who described the adventures of a conscript in the army.
As an army doctor, Abraham was requested by a military court to make
an investigation of the conscript. He wrote in his case history how
impressed he was by the person ’ s ability to gain the trust of others
(including his jailers). Abraham was particularly struck by his ‘ genius at
phantastic story telling ’ and his ‘ uncontrollable desire for aggrandise-
ment ’ (p. 294). As an explanation, Abraham suggested that since this
particular individual ‘ felt himself unloved in his childhood, he had an
inner urge to show himself “ loveable ” to everybody ... to prove to