Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” It may be one of the best-known opening lines in all of literature, but now Rebecca has become famous for another reason altogether: Daphne du Maurier’s haunting novel has unwittingly lent its name to “Rebecca syndrome”.
Social media may have had a bigger part to play in increasing the number of people who struggle with this specific form of irrational jealousy – it enabled us to put a name to the ghosts of girl/boyfriends past.
The idea isn’t necessarily new, but the term has started to gain traction on social media over the past few years, with vast numbers of TikTok and YouTube videos dedicated to explaining the concept and giving tips of varying quality for overcoming it.
Rebecca syndrome, as it’s become known – originally referred to as retroactive jealousy – is an obsessive envy over a partner’s past relationships.
But as they begin their life together as newlyweds, she becomes increasingly obsessed with his late wife, Rebecca – an object of glamour and fascination, whom the second Mrs de Winter feels she will never live up to.
