Diana in Search of Herself: Portrait of a Troubled Princess

An interesting examination of a troubled life.

I really liked and enjoyed Sally Bedell Smith's recent book about the Queen. So I thought that I would try reading "Diana in Search of Herself" and have found it enjoyable however, Smith uses a lot of previous "tabloid journalists" a her main sources and these references becomes a little tedious at times. I am at the middle of the book and will re-edit this review when I complete the entire book.

Questo libro,scritto da una giornalista americana seria e non pettegola, non è la solita raccolta di gossip e di aneddoti più o meno veri sulla defunta principessa di Galles,ma una cronaca dettagliata della breve esistenza di una donna che,apparentemente,sembrava aver avuto tutto dalla vita.E' impressionante scoprire la sua personalità alquanto disturbata,si direbbe sempre più disturbata,man mano che gli anni passavano e gli effetti devastanti che essa ha provocato per la principessa stessa e per coloro che le vivevano accanto.Credo che questa giovane donna non sia mai stata felice,nè tantomeno serena e quello che ha vissuto suo marito,il principe di Galles,dev'essere stato un vero inferno privato.Quella che racconta questo libro è una storia triste non tanto perchè tutti vorremmo che quelle che ci appaiono come favole avessero un lieto fine,ma perchè ci fa entrare negli inferni privati di tante persone, primo fra tutti quello della principessa.Se agli inizi del libro il racconto dei suoi modi di agire e di comportarsi può apparire irritante,già a metà lettura uno non può fare a meno di provare una certa pietas per una donna che è vissuta fondamentalmente sola,tradita dalle persone scadenti che frequentava ed alle quali accordava la sua fiducia e che avrebbe dovuto,come scrive l'autrice del libro,essere curata,ma mi chiedo se esista una cura per le personalità borderline.

This is supposed to be an analysis of Princess Diana's self destructive life, which is supposed to delve more meaningfully into her emotional world to make her out to be someone who had no real self identity up until her death: a Borderline Personality who made those around her a living hell with tantrums, suicide attempts, binge eating and purging and bouts of paranoia until she abandoned them to move onto her next 'victim' stupid and misguided enough to be besotted by her beauty and charm until they too got fed up with her or disolusioned with her chronic neediness. But it is this book, not the evidence supporting the author's theory, that turns her into a basket case. The author selects biographical information about Diana's life, which is already written about or in the public domain, to support the main theme of her argument. What she really does is tailor the evidence to fit the hugely unsupported and manufactured verdict. But there is no sign in this book that this author has any knowledge or insight into this complex distressing psychological illness. According to some experts on personality disorders, it is highly unlikely that Princess Diana would be able to achieve all she had in her short life: hob nobbing with the greatest and good and doing all of her good works with aplomb if she genuinely suffered from BPD. After all, she did remarkably well to appear normal, well balanced and confident during public engagements. I am inclined to believe these experts not this author, based on the ill informed drivel written here. All told, the book seems far more like yet another anti Princess Di biography: a pro-establishment, pro-Charles exercise designed to undermine Princess Diana who, no doubt, had her faults and weaknesses but was likely to have little more than chronic anxiety disorder as well as bullimia originating from deep unhappiness and insecurities brought about by her parents divorce, possibly made much worse by her role as a highly publicised figurehead destined to be Queen who had to live a lie for most of her life after being betrayed by her husband's infidelity, whilst trying to cope with a hounding press whilst living amongst a largely unsypathetic toxic, no nonsense royal family who have little insight, understanding and patience for a more sensitive, tactile 'feely touchy' person like her who, quite frankly, seemed to have been born into the wrong class.

Sally Bedell Smith does an excellent, thorough job pulling together her extensive research into a compelling story about the woman we thought we knew....but actually knew very little about. It's tough to put down once you start reading. While sympathetic toward Diana, I found it fair and balanced re: Charles and the Royal Family. All in all, I believe this is one of the Very Best biographies of Princess Diana--and I've read most of them. This is a Must Have for your reading library if you are at all interested in Diana, British royalty, and how difficult life can be--even for a Princess.