In his own person — as Frédéric Bourdin, the unwanted child of an absent father and a struggling mother — he felt like nobody.

The impersonations were not primarily about material gain.

They were about acquiring the experience of being cared for, of mattering to people, of having an identity that generated warmth and attention rather than indifference or hostility.

This interpretation is supported by Bourdin’s own statements in interviews and in The Imposter documentary, though his testimony is always complicated by his documented ability to construct self-serving narratives.

But the pattern of his behavior over many years — consistently choosing to impersonate vulnerable teenagers rather than wealthy executives, consistently inserting himself into social welfare systems rather than financial ones — is more consistent with the psychological interpretation than with simple fraud.