Synopsis: While an experiment is performed on the Enterprise’s engines, the ship travels millions of light years away into a distant galaxy.
This episode gives us an illustration of what ego inflation looks like and its part of the process of individuation, becoming more whole, as this concept is described by Carl (C. G.) Jung. Inflation is identifying with the god-like powers of archetypes within our unconscious and is a necessary part of the union of opposites. The opposite in this case would be the humbling that we feel when we realize that the god-like power is not truly ours, only an illusion with which we have deceived ourselves.
In “Where No One Has Gone Before” the most clearly inflated ego belongs to Starfleet Officer Kosinski, who comes aboard the Enterprise with his assistant, in order to make the vessel’s engines more efficient. Kosinski initially is arrogant and extremely sure of his absolute ability to improve upon the Enterprise’s engines. When an experiment sends the Enterprise millions of light years away into a distant galaxy, he still does not admit that he has made a mistake; instead, he tells Captain Jean-Luc Picard what a rare opportunity the crew has to explore this far away galaxy. Kosinski is finally humbled by his inability to get the Enterprise back to where it should be. And after Kosinski finally admits this to the crew he is humbled enough to be part of the solution to returning the ship to our galaxy. His assistant, whom we now know is a species called a Traveler, asks for Kosinski to assist him, and the ship is able to return home. This is analogous to how when we allow ourselves to feel the pain of being weak as well as the glory of being strong, our psyches become more whole.
Original post created 12 May 2021
mydailysoultrek 