The Role of Fantasy in Divorce (A Study of Seven Young Divorced Couples in Isfahan)

This is an academic article that draws on psychoanalytic theory to reinterpret the phenomenon of divorce. Where conventional sociological and pathological theories explain deviant behavior, including divorce, through external social determinants and conscious individual motivations, this article proposes an alternative grounded in the unconscious dimension of human existence. Specifically, it uses Jacques Lacan's concept of fantasy and the imaginary register as analytical tools to account for the unconscious aspects underlying the occurrence of divorce, challenging the assumption of a fully conscious subject that dominates most existing frameworks.