Sterlin Mosley, PhD

We are in a cultural moment where the language of trauma, identity, and neurodivergence has become flattened. Everything gets folded into the same general idea of “difference, ”as though intention, behavior, and relational harm are irrelevant if we attribute them to some diagnosable label. Empathy is treated as a moral imperative rather than a relational discernment in this climate. And nowhere is this more evident than in the recent trend of lumping autistic people, narcissists, and even psychopaths into one conversation about misunderstood behavior and, more disturbingly, discussions of ableism and de-stigmatization.

Center of the Universe: Transforming the 27 Types of Narcissism from the Inside Out offers readers a practical guide for recognizing the 27 narcissistic subtypes at the individual, relational, collective, and systemic levels of human life. Through integral analysis, Center of the Universe utilizes pop-culture examples, interview excerpts, and the latest research on the rise of collective narcissism to provide readers with a practical guide on how to navigate an increasingly more narcissistic world and employ strategies for mitigating and transforming toxic egotism at every level of their lives.

“The people always have some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness… This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears, he is a protector.” —Plato, The Republic.

The tyrant rarely begins as a villain. He arrives dressed as a savior, speaking in the language of protection, reassurance, and certainty. He promises order where there is chaos, identity where there is fragmentation, and strength where there is fatigue. And in a world that has grown weary of ambiguity and allergic to nuance, that promise is enough. The tyrant does not seize power by force alone; he is summoned by a culture that has lost its taste for responsibility. We imagine that by placing our faith in someone who doesn’t flinch, who never doubts, who never bends under the weight of nuance, we might be spared the agonizing vulnerability of having to think, feel, or act with integrity ourselves.

This country’s current cultural-political moment—and, more broadly, the state of the world- needs a more robust and incisive diagnosis than the critical but often topical conversations surrounding political restructuring and the mechanisms behind such endeavors. Indeed, systems of liberal democracy are under rightful scrutiny, particularly in the United States, which has long positioned itself as a bastion for such ideals. The merits of democratic institutions have been examined, defended, and c...

Empathy is complex. It’s not a fixed trait or a moral virtue—it’s a psychological and emotional capacity that develops over time and is shaped by personality, life experience, and emotional resilience. In The Narcissist in You and Everyone Else, I describe seven distinct levels of empathy, each with a particular emotional structure and psychological challenges. This inventory will help you reflect on how you engage with empathy and identify where you might fall on this spectrum.

The terms narcissist, sociopath, and psychopath get thrown around frequently, often as interchangeable insults. While they share certain traits—low empathy, manipulation, and a disregard for others' well-being—they describe distinct personality structures with different motivations, emotional capacities, and behavioral patterns.One of the most apparent distinctions lies in how they relate to empathy and harm. Narcissists have low to low-average empathy and harm others primarily to protect or rei...

The Three Instincts and Narcissism: How Your Core Drives Shape Your EgoIn The Narcissist in You and Everyone Else, I describe three instinctual drives as the raw, foundational operating system through which the personality functions. Much like Freud’s concept of the id, our instincts are primitive, unconscious, and deeply tied to survival but exist largely outside our conscious awareness. These three primal, instinctual drives direct how we interact with the world, influencing what we pursue, pr...

Helps readers to identify how narcissism shows up in their own lives and when everyday narcissism becomes destructive.The Narcissist in You and Everyone Else introduces readers to the notion of narcissism as a spectrum-based model of increasing loss of empathy (due to a variety of factors including genetics, trauma, abuse, conditioning and environment) that can give way to a propensity toward narcissism. Through studies and examples, Sterlin Mosley defines the 27 subtypes of narcissism and how t...