Main Character Syndrome
you're not the protagonist of the world, you just have the only camera you can see out of
Grounded in the research on Wikipedia: Main character syndrome; spotlight effect (Gilovich, Medvec & Savitsky, 2000); narrative identity (Dan McAdams)
the setup
main character syndrome is treating your life like a film you're the lead of and everyone else is supporting cast. the romanticized morning routine, the soundtrack on the train, the breakup framed as a story arc. at low doses it's harmless self-narration. the problem is when you start believing the story is real — that strangers are background NPCs, that your feelings outrank everyone in the scene, that the plot owes you a payoff.
the science
heads up: 'main character syndrome' is a 2020-ish TikTok coinage, not a clinical diagnosis — so hold the label loosely. but the wiring under it is real and studied. Gilovich, Medvec and Savitsky (2000) named the spotlight effect: you massively overestimate how much people notice you. and Dan McAdams' work on narrative identity shows your brain literally builds a 'self' as a story with you at the center. main-character brain is just those two normal mechanisms cranked past useful.