Trapped in the Triangular Orders: A Lacanian Psycholinguistic Reading of Mulholland Drive and About Elly

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Department of english, Vali-e-Asr university of Rafsanjan, Rafsanjan, Iran

10.22091/slic.2026.15462.1029

Abstract

Lacanian theories have been considered as potential components in approaches meant to be employed in studying films. This comparative analysis investigates how characters in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive and Asghar Farhadi's About Elly collapse under psychological pressure when their perceived realities splinter. Exploring the complex interplay between the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real, the analysis demonstrates how the subjects’ defence mechanisms fail to sustain their illusions. Despite significant cultural differences, both films can be read as demonstrating the ego's instability and the inevitability of its dissolution under the weight of reality. Diane's private fantasy represents the Ideal-Ego while Elly's collective social image offers Ego-Ideal imposed by collective expectations, which are subsequently disrupted by their respective Symbolic orders − namely Hollywood's laws and the Iranian social order. Each narrative arrives at a traumatic confrontation with the Real through suicide and disappearance, exposing the constitutive void at the heart of subjectivity. The subject in both films is repeatedly confronted with the Real in a traumatic way, whether through Lynch's individual fantasy or Farhadi's collective moral crisis. Ultimately, these narratives reveal how subjectivity exposes the void that shatters the illusion of a coherent self.

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References

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Studies in literature and Culture: from Theory to Practice
Volume 1, Issue 2 - Serial Number 2
September 2026
Pages 164-177

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