WAS PRINCESS Diana the paranoid "mental case" the Royals paint her to be?

Her shocking letter recently revealed by butler and confidante Paul Burrell shows Diana feared for her life and predicted it would end in a car crash. My work in family therapy has taught me that even the exceedingly paranoid are often that way for very good reason.

Diana, seemingly blessed by enchanting fortune, provides the most jolting of ironies. Strip away the designer clothes and jewels, and she's the symbol of what societies all over the world do to women who threaten an economic, political or cultural power base.

Families and partners do it, too. I have seen a husband, told by his wife that she would no longer tolerate his affairs, push her into moving traffic.

I have spoken with children told by grandparents that if they could get away with it, they would kill their mothers.

Remember the Watergate years when the effervescent Martha Mitchell, wife of Attorney General John Mitchell, told the truth. Martha, branded a nutcase, was overmedicated, locked in her room and denied access to her child.

And what about the brides of India who, as police look the other way, are killed by a mother-in-law they dare question? And female circumcision?

Sigmund Freud wrote about "genital power," that indescribable something that Hollywood has called "It." Well, lemme tell you, many men are scared to death of "It." But they are just as scared of Thinking Power in a woman, and they have lots of company in that department, too.

Prince Charles was always a wimp. Do you remember when he asked his mother's permission to kiss Diana on the balcony on their wedding day? He didn't have the courage to commit to Camilla Parker when they were young, so she married someone else. But in time they were an item again. Because Charles needed an heir, Camilla handpicked Diana, assuming she was too meek and weak to threaten them.

The Rottweiler, as Diana called Camilla, was proven wrong. A devoted and hands-on mother, Diana made sure her children enjoyed as normal a life as possible.

Yes, Diana had huge emotional problems, but there were reasons for them: How would you handle learning of your husband's ongoing affair on your honeymoon? Despite loneliness and judgment lapses Diana gained knowledge, power, stature. And her subjects loved her because she cared. To say that the Royals were not pleased by her popularity is an understatement.

The British version of our CIA is the MI6, and a group within it is fiercely devoted to the royal family. Diana, warned that her life was in jeopardy, became so terrified that she stopped using palace security.

Conventional wisdom has blamed the paparazzi and the drunken state of her driver for her death.

Yet, a blinding light that preceded the crash, possibly from a weapon, was reported in the tunnel. And the restaurant bill showed only moderate alcohol consumption. Why wasn't Diana rushed to a hospital? Predictably, her bodyguard claims to remember absolutely nothing.

Diana's oldest son, William, has been trotted out cynically to protect what the Royals call "the family business" and discredit "these revelations."

But what seems clear from these very same "revelations" is that Diana wanted the public to investigate any untimely death.

Though it's a tall order, when William is older, he may be strong enough to face the truth, however painful, and use it wisely to meet his destiny.

And this would be a monument to his mother's dearest, deepest dreams.