Synopsis: The Enterprise becomes ensnared in a hole in space and an entity within it that wants to experience all kinds of death.
This episode reflects how the conscious ego, here manifested in the crew of the Enterprise, reacts when encountering the unconscious within one’s psyche.
When the crew of the Enterprise first acknowledge the existence of Nagilum, it is described as something like a hole in space, the absence of everything. To the conscious ego this can be how the dark depths of the unconscious would first be seen, or perhaps more aptly, felt.
Then Lt. Worf, the Klingon warrior, becomes alarmed and explains his concern by telling Captain Jean-Luc Picard about an old Klingon legend of a giant black entity that devours vessels. This is also an apt recalling of what an encounter with the unconscious would be.
The entity in “Where Silence has Lease,” Nagilum, is fascinated by the idea that the crew of the Enterprise are finite and tells Picard that what it wants is to experience all kinds of death, and that likely a third or a half of the crew will perish in its experiments. Counsellor Deanna Troi feels that Nagilum is and is not there, and that the crew’s lives are of no consequence to it, that they are like lab animals in an experiment. This very much can also be equated with how the unconscious, especially the collective unconscious, has no regard for the needs or wants of the conscious ego.
Finally, Picard, acting as the conscious ego would, orders that the ship destroy itself rather than be at the mercy of Nagilum. This reflects how the conscious ego’s first reaction to the unconscious is often to suppress it, pretend it isn’t there, or put off dealing with it. However, once Nagilum and Picard come to an understanding, the Enterprise is allowed to go on its way. This can be compared to when the ego acknowledges the bit of unconscious material, and integrates it into itself, that the whole psyche becomes more whole.
Original post created 8 June 2021
mydailysoultrek 