This study is a psychological analysis on Spencer (2021) film written by Steven Knight. Spencer is a historical psychological film directed by Pablo Larraín that tells the story of Princess Diana's struggles to find her place in the royal family. Diana Spencer, struggling with mental-health problems during her Christmas holidays with the Royal Family at the Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England. The purposes of this study are to analyze the anxiety and defense mechanism experienced by Princess Diana as the main character by using anxiety theory and defense mechanisms by Sigmund Freud.
The method used in this study was descriptive qualitative. The main data used for this study were taken from Spencer (2021) film, the data were in the form of dialogue, monologue, and narratives. The steps used to collect data were watching film and reading film script, identifying data, classifying data and analysing data.
This study showed two results. First the study portrayed the anxieties of Princess Diana according to Sigmund Freud’s theory, which were realistic anxiety, neurotic anxiety, and moral anxiety. The realistic anxiety that Princess Diana experienced was shown in how she thought about fears and threats from outside to herself. The neurotic anxiety shown in how Princess Diana’s anxiety came from the conflict between emotional drives and royal environmental demands. The moral anxiety was shown when the behavior or desires of those around her did not align with her moral values and make her feel guilty. Second, the study showed Princess Diana’s defense mechanisms to cope with her anxiety were displacement, rationalization, reaction formation, and projection.

Keywords: Psychoanalysis, Anxiety, Defense Mechanism, Spencer (2021) Film