Cassandra Syndrome
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The Cassandra Syndrome is a term applied to predictions of doom about the future that are not believed, but upon later reflection turn out to be correct. This denotes a psychological tendency among people to disbelieve inescapably bad news, often through denial. The person making the prediction is caught in the dilemma of knowing what is going to happen but not being able to resolve the problem without the cooperation of others.
The name is derived from the Greek myth of Cassandra. Cassandra was a daughter of Priam, the King of Troy. She was taken under tutelage by Apollo who gave instruction on foretelling the future. Initially this was bestowed as a gift. When Cassandra refused Apollo's romantic advances, her instruction stops and the gift becomes a curse. Cassandra was left with the capacity for foreknowledge of future events, but could not alter these events. She could predict the future, but no one would ever believe her. Cassandra predicts that Paris's journey to kidnap Helen would end in doom for Troy. In Vergil's Aeneid, Cassandra warns specifically that the Greek gift of a giant wooden horse was soon to carry tragedy within the walls of Troy, a prophesy in which "All heard, and none believed".
A modern example of this phenomenon is portrayed in the 1995 movie Twelve Monkeys, directed by Terry Gilliam. The Cassandra Syndrome is also, by this definition, depicted in the film Terminator-2 by James Cameron, and earlier in the 1961 Twilight Zone episode with Russell Johnson, "Back There", where a bet lands a man into the past trying to prevent the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
The figure of Cassandra, has also been used as an iconic image of those who are in the role of an antagonist of widespread ignorance or arrogance, particularly at the governmental level, to the consequences of the pursuit of a policy against one's own interests (Barbara Tuchman: March of Folly; From Troy to Vietnam).
The term may also be applied in a sarcastic manner, referring to those who opportunistically claim to have predicted doom but were allegedly not believed ("I told you so").
Episode 11, Season 8, of the british sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf which aired in March 1999 was called Cassandra and featured a fortune telling, female computer of the same name who predicts and consequently causes her own death.
