Academic impostorism.The paradoxical loop of fear of failure and success

Context: The so-called “imposter phenomenon” in the academic field has profound psychological, relational, interactional and socio-emotional implications for those who experience it and for their environment. Objective: to make visible the connection between this phenomenon and a certain style of response associated, recursively, with evaluative anxiety, maladaptive perfectionism, overdemanding and procrastination. Such notions are succinctly developed in the theoretical framework, offering a critical apparatus that places the topic in a broad and diverse horizon. Methodology: it is based on the reporting of a case study (vignette type) introduced as an example. This is fertile to interweave, didactically, the case presented with the previous theoretical notions. Development: the results achieved through the construction of the case are presented and the question of the role of higher-level educational institutions in safeguarding the socio-emotional health of their academic community is discussed. Conclusion: the need to identify the risk and protection factors that individuals have in highly competitive scenarios and shaped by an efficient-instrumental logic (where the mechanisms for maintaining “excellence” must be constantly active) is highlighted.