Prima Donna

Prima Donna: The Psychology of Maria Callas explores the psychological mechanisms behind the hypnotic power of Callas’s artistry and her tragic life story. Advances in developmental psychology and the concept of narcissism are used to shed light on Callas’s puzzling personal deterioration during the last nine years of her life. Although precipitated by the trauma and shame over being abandoned by Aristotle Onassis and the precipitous deterioration of her voice, Callas midlife disintegration reflects deeper psychological vulnerabilities. Throughout her life, Callas’s lingering view that her career had been imposed upon her and that her mother compelled her to sing professionally led to her ambivalent relationship with the world of opera. Callas’s sense of superiority, derived from being celebrated for her special talent, coincided with feelings of vulnerability and inferiority embedded in her realization that she was celebrated not for her intrinsic worth but for her exceptional talent. Lacking a cohesive and integrated sense of self, she sought affirmation and vitality from merger with adoring audiences and older men, including her husband Battista Meneghini and her long-term partner Onassis. The propensity to fuse her identity with stage roles contributed to her artistic greatness, but envy and the lack of an intrinsic sense of meaning and worth enhanced her vulnerability to life’s vagaries.