Princess Diana

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Lady Diana Frances Spencer (July 1, 1961–August 31, 1997) was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales. From the time of her engagement until her death, Princess Diana was one of the most famous women in the world. She was known across the world as “The People’s Princess” and “The Queen of Our Hearts” (Pettinger, 2006). Through her charity and her life struggles, many people admired and could relate to the Princess.

Princess Diana was well-known for her charity work, especially for her campaigns against the use of landmines and helping victims of AIDS (Biography.com, 2011). Little was known about AIDS, some still believed a person could get AIDS by touching, hugging, or kissing an infected person. In April 1987, the Princess of Wales was the first high-profile celebrity to be photographed knowingly touching a person infected with the HIV virus (Pettinger, 2006). This had a significant impact on changing people’s opinions and attitudes to the disease.

Perhaps her most widely publicized charity appearance was her visit to Angola in January 1997. There she served as an International Red Cross VIP volunteer, visited landmine survivors in hospitals, touring de-mining projects run by the HALO Trust, and attended mine awareness education classes about the dangers of mines immediately surrounding homes and villages (Pettinger, 2006). While the public watch Diana battle injustices to humanity, Diana battled several serious psychological issues.

Princess Diana struggled with bulimia and depression throughout her life (Biography.com, 2011). In 1992, Andrew Morton’s book, Diana: Her True Story reveled that Diana had attempted suicide during the early years of marriage, struggled with an eating disorder, and obsessed that Charles con...

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...erpersonal problems needed to be addressed: interpersonal loss, role dispute, role transition, deficits (Comer, 2006). As a wife, future queen and mother, Diana had some major roles to fill and she became very overwhelmed with these responsibilities. It is obvious from her feelings of extreme loneliness and battle with bulimia she was not getting the support she needed from her husband or family, therefore group therapy could have been another option for her in order to find that support system she was missing at home. Group therapy is helpful in as many as 75% of cases, especially when combined with individual insight therapy (Comer, 2006). I believe her charity work, while extremely noble and beneficial to the world, was a cry for the support and love she was missing in her marriage. The more charity work she did, the more affection she gained with the public.

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