Princess Diana Portrayed Through Psychoanalysis and Feminism

In short, Princess Diana was the epitome of beauty, delicacy, elegance, intelligence, and resilience. In this “Princess Diana” essay there is an attempt to analyse this gorgeous women through the lens of feminism and psychoanalysis. Diana’s path to becoming a princess has been full of obstacles, ever since she was a child, and it hadn’t got any easier by the time of her death. Diana came from a fairly normal family; she had many siblings, and many hurdles to overcome. Fights were common within the family, ultimately culminating in her parents’ divorce, following which Diana’s father was awarded the children’s custody. Her parents’ divorce, and subsequently her mother’s absence, left a deep mark on the princess’s soul, and has greatly affected her development. The royal family did not offer her a much better life either, but rather, one full of tumult and pressure, causing her to feel like a prisoner, unwanted by the man whom she has sworn to love forever. All of these events have changed her irreversibly, and they are now giving me the opportunity to use psychoanalysis and feminism to better portray her. Although she may have not been fully aware of it, her actions, as well as the way she perceived others, bore many similarities with feminist ideologies.

Feminism, according to Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary, is “an organised effort to offer women the same economic, social, and political rights that men enjoy.” I believe that Diana’s actions are most correspondent with the concept of liberal feminism, which militates in favour of gender equality. More precisely, Diana sought to demonstrate that women are not vulnerable, dependent, or less important than men; what’s more, despite the fact that she was married to the most famous prince of his time, she found a unique way to shine (without deliberately drawing attention to herself), even after their 15-year-old marriage has terminated. Diana worked for the Red Cross, and called for an international ban on landmines. As she famously said: “Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the that one day someone might do the same for you.” Due to her kindness and charitability, the British named her The Princess of Hearts.

I may add that feminism acted as a means of escapism for the princess, helping her to cope with suffering, to discard the emotional baggage of her past, and to be reborn. As The Telegraph stated, “Diana transformed from a shy kindergarten teacher into the most powerful woman in Britain – an elegant, cosmopolitan, and free-spoken lady who was not afraid of letting her voice be heard. She knew that she could change the world in ways unimaginable.” We may say that Diana was well-aware of the fact that her marriage with Charles was destined to fail. Perhaps that was the reason why, in one of her secret tapes, she described her wedding day as “the worst day of my life”. Much to everyone’s shock, she omitted the word “obey” from her wedding vows, thus reinforcing that she was a liberal feminist. She believed in gender equality and refused to submit to her husband, as society would have expected. She has given up her peaceful private life in order to marry Prince Charles, but instead of finding in him an ally and a friend, she found herself stuck in a love triangle, unable to achieve sexual fulfilment within her own marriage. She has spoken openly about her and Charles’s sex life, saying that, “Instinct told me, it was just so odd. I don’t know, there was no requirement for it from his case.”

According to Sigmund Freud, seeking pleasure is the dominant motivational force in life, whereby humans organise all of their creative, cognitive and affective resources. He further states that sex is detrimental to the well-functioning of the whole human “circuit”. Diana was sexually incomplete, feeling unappreciated by her husband and, although she was anything but an easy woman, she found solace in an affair with her riding instructor, James Hewitt, coming to terms with the idea that Charles had been cheating on her with Camilla Parker Bowles. Diana’s childhood had great repercussions throughout her life. Psychoanalytically, as per Freud, “early desires and fears result in conflicts which, if left unresolved, become supressed – a part of the unconscious mind.” Diana suffered from depression and bulimia, but not because she was trying to conform to the beauty standards of the time, nor because of a childhood issue. Whenever her husband called her fat, Diana was determined to take control of at least this aspect of her life. At that time, both her mental and her physical health were in a deplorable state, which she admitted in an interview with Martin Bashir. Her struggle has helped her to understand what women felt and needed in such difficult moments. During the same interview, she said: “I hurt my arms and my legs; and I work in environments now where I see women doing similar things and I'm able to understand completely where they're coming from.” That was the moment when her actions became those of a militant feminist. I do believe that, subconsciously, while caring for other women’s wounds, Diana managed to heal her very own.

In my opinion, Diana’s relationship with Charles had a significant influence on her; their marriage was a akin to a journey – from a shy, vulnerable 19-year-old, to a powerful woman whose presence demanded respect. Although her death was devastating, people have never ceased to love and support her. Although she died the same year I was born, that is 1997, princess Diana fascinates me, and I’ve always wanted to know more about her; I see her as an ideal woman and mother.