Reservists Drive Infidelity Through Wartime Psychological Splitting

During the Swords of Iron war, many women discovered partners returning from months or hundreds of days of reserve duty had engaged in affairs, the article reports. Psychologists and therapists link these betrayals to survival defenses—detachment, splitting and dissociation—activated during combat; such mechanisms can persist and erode marital bonds. Experts urge combined individual trauma treatment and couples therapy to rebuild trust and intimacy.