The Author
Dr. Mara Voss
Clinical psychologist. Columnist. TEDx speaker. Survivor of a seven-year relationship with a man who made her question her own memory.
She wrote this book because she couldn't find it anywhere else.
Her Story
She didn't set out to write about narcissism.
Dr. Mara Voss spent the first decade of her career studying attachment theory — the science of how early bonds shape the way we love. She published papers. She saw patients. She gave talks. She was, by every professional measure, doing well.
Then she spent seven years in a relationship that dismantled everything she thought she knew about herself. Her partner was charming, brilliant, and completely incapable of acknowledging her reality. By the time she left, she had a PhD in psychology and couldn't trust her own memory.
The experience didn't break her. It redirected her. She turned her clinical training on the relationship she'd just survived, and what she found — in the research, in her patients' stories, in the patterns she'd been too close to see — became the foundation of this book.
Empaths are from Venus, Narcissists are from Mars is the book she needed when she was sitting on her kitchen floor at 2am, wondering if she was the problem. It is sharp, funny, and completely without mercy for the systems that let this dynamic thrive.
Credentials
Author
3 books on psychology, relationships, and power dynamics
Speaker
Keynotes at TEDx, trauma recovery summits, and women's leadership forums
Columnist
Featured in Psychology Today, The Guardian, and The Cut
What They're Saying
"A rare book that is both clinically rigorous and laugh-out-loud funny. Required reading."
Psychology Today
"She writes about narcissism the way a surgeon operates — with precision, and without flinching."
The Guardian
"Finally, someone said it. All of it."
The Cut
The Journey
17 years in the making.
Completed doctoral research in clinical psychology, specializing in personality disorders and attachment theory.
Published debut book, The Invisible Wound, which became a quiet bestseller in trauma recovery circles.
Began writing the column "Power & Feeling" for Psychology Today, reaching 2M+ monthly readers.
TEDx talk "The Empath's Dilemma" surpassed 8 million views, sparking a global conversation.
Empaths are from Venus, Narcissists are from Mars — the book she'd been building toward for 17 years.
Book Dr. Voss
She speaks.
She doesn't pull punches.
Available for keynotes, panels, podcast appearances, and media interviews. Specialties: narcissistic abuse recovery, empathy as a political act, and why the billionaire class is a personality disorder at scale.