A Lacanian Analysis of Bidel Dehlavi’s Story of the Picture: A journey from self-identification to alienation and symbolic self-destruction

The current study attempts to discuss one of the most mysterious and enchanting stories of Bidel Dehlavi, his autobiography, from a Lacanian psychoanalytical perspective.The primary goal is to scrutinize the psychoanalytical evolution of the story's main character based on three significant Lacanian stages of the unconscious: the Mirror Stage, the Symbolic Order, and the Real Order.In addition, the psychoanalytical portrayal of the main character is reflected in the light of Lacanian concepts of Fantasy, the Other, Lack, Objet petit a, and Castration.The Lacanian subject in Bidel's story encounters a huge void.To fill this gap, he strives to identify himself with the other or the picture that his friend, Anub, has painted.The shattered subject discovers himself in the harmonious and perfect image and strains to recover his lost identity in the flawless picture.The subject is unaware that by entering the Symbolic Order, he would suffer alienation and distortion.Hence, by clinging to Fantasy, he endeavors to keep the illusion of being perfect.However, by stepping into the Real Order and facing the trauma of this stage and the impossibility of symbolizing his pains, he commits symbolic suicide and breaks the chain of recurring signifiers.The findings of the current study indicate that the main character (Bidel) passes through the Mirror Stage with an imaginary identification of himself, then faces the alienation of the Symbolic Order, and in the Real Order, as a psychotic subject, he is baffled between Fantasy and Reality and commits a symbolic suicide.