Victim Monsters: When the Wounded Become the Wound
Stardate 2026.205 · D915 There’s a kind of person our language isn’t built to hold. We have a word for the villain — the one who hurts people because something in them is broken toward cruelty. And we have a word for the victim — the one hurt through no fault of their own, owed […]
DARVO — The Three-Move Defense Abusers Use Without Knowing the Name
DARVO The Three-Move Defense Abusers Use Without Knowing the Name The first time someone DARVO’d me, I was the one apologizing within about ninety seconds. I had brought up a thing that had happened — a specific incident, a real one, with details and a date and an impact. I had rehearsed how to say […]
Traumatic Intelligence: The Internet Finally Named the Thing
Stardate 2026.203 · D913 Stardate 2026.204 · D914 There’s a term moving through the feeds right now — TikTok, Substack, YouTube, Medium — called traumatic intelligence. The short version: when a mind grows up inside an unpredictable or emotionally unsafe environment, it can develop high-speed threat forecasting. Hundreds of micro-signals processed at once — tone, […]
The Invisible Leash: 5 Impactful Truths About Growing Up Under Maternal Narcissism
Stardate 2026.203 · D913 To the outside world, you are the architect of a perfect life. You are the high-achiever, the tireless professional, the one everyone relies on. Yet, in the quiet moments between accolades, a persistent sense of fraudulence haunts you. You move through your days with a “high-functioning” mask, fearing that any minor […]
The Dangerous Charm of the Dark Empath: Why Being \”Seen\” Isn’t Always Safe
Stardate 2026.203 · D913 Stardate 2026.202 · D912 There is a specific, disorienting pain that comes from being in a relationship with someone who seems to understand your soul perfectly, yet consistently causes you harm. It is the ultimate relational gaslight: how can someone who “passes every empathy test” and uses fluent therapeutic language leave […]
The Narcissistic Family System: A Guide to Behavioral Archetypes
Stardate 2026.201 · D911 1. Foundations: The Family as a Narcissistic Extension In a healthy family system, parents provide the emotional attunement necessary for a child to develop a secure sense of self. However, when a mother suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) or the more subtle “Covert Narcissism,” this dynamic undergoes a pathological inversion. […]
Full Moon Recompile: The Night I Let the Loop Run
Stardate 2026.151 · D861 The Night I Let the Loop Run The moon was full tonight, and I did the thing my nervous system has spent forty years calling dangerous. I let the loop run. If you know the loop, you know. It’s the night the thoughts come faster than you can hold them. Old […]
The Big Five — What Personality Psychology Actually Knows (And Why It Keeps Getting Repackaged as Disease)
Stardate 2026.137 · D847 The Big Five What Personality Psychology Actually Knows (And Why It Keeps Getting Repackaged as Disease) Most of what gets sold to you as “personality” is garbage. Not all of it. But the Myers-Briggs you took in college, the Enneagram your small group is using, the StrengthsFinder your employer paid for […]
The Psychiatrist Who Thinks We’re All Wrong About Trauma — Sitting With Hannah Spier
Stardate 2026.137 · D847 The Psychiatrist Who Thinks We’re All Wrong About Trauma Sitting With Hannah Spier I found her by accident. YouTube’s algorithm — which has been studying me longer than my therapist has — surfaced a long-form lecture by a woman in glasses with a slight Norwegian accent talking calmly into a camera […]