Volume 04 - Number 4 - March 1998
Pages: 109 - 154
Dervin, D. (1998). Princess Diana [Letter to the Editor]. Clio’s Psyche, 4(4), 139.
Princess Diana
Abstract
In this letter to the editor, the author follows up on an earlier piece on the death of Princess Diana in the preceding December issue of Clio’s Psyche. That piece proposed a possible connection between an increasingly hostile group-fantasy and the role of the paparazzi as empowered delegates who enacted her sacrifice. The author acknowledges that psychohistorical analyses of current events are necessarily tentative. He reports finding supporting evidence he describes as unexpected in the London Review of Books of October 16, 1997, where TV news editor John Morrison disclosed that British media had planned around a fictional scenario involving the death of a leading royal in a car crash abroad. The author concludes that the BBC was therefore primed to play its part in orchestrating global mourning when the news arrived.
British media, British royal family, Clio’s Psyche, letter to the editor, London Review of Books, mourning, Princess Diana, psychohistory
Dear Editor,
Writing on Princess Diana’s death in last December’s Clio’s Psyche, I proposed a possible connection between an increasingly hostile group-fantasy and the role of the paparazzi as empowered delegates to enact her sacrifice. Like all psychohistorical analyses, especially of current events, this one had to be tentative. However, I have since been surprised to find an almost uncanny piece of supporting evidence in the London Review of Books, October 16, 1997, p. 4. It was disclosed that the British media had already begun planning for just such a singular catastrophe: “We had worked to a fictional scenario,” wrote TV news editor John Morrison, “involving the death of a leading royal in a car crash in a foreign country.” Thus, when the news came in, the BBC was primed to play its part in orchestrating the global mourning.
Dan Dervin
Fredericksburg, Virginia
Page 139
How to cite this article
Dervin, D. (1998). Princess Diana [Letter to the Editor]. Clio’s Psyche, 4(4), 139.
