Synopsis: When Lt. Commander Data refuses to be disassembled for an experiment he feels is unadvisable, Captain Picard defends his choice in a legal hearing.
The title of this episode “The Measure of a Man,” while it might be alluding to a quote from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it is an unfortunately androcentric-sounding title for this episode in which Captain Jean-Luc Picard defends the rights of the android Starfleet Officer Lt. Commander Data by proving that he is sentient because he feels. In depth psychological terms, Picard is proving essentially that Data, a Logos-driven rational ego character, also has an Eros-driven irrational unconscious, or anima.
In Jungian depth psychology, anima is the idealized internal feminine within someone who identifies as male, and animus, is the idealized internal masculine in someone who identifies as female. When we are attracted to someone of the opposite gender, this attraction is due to us projecting our idealized inner other onto them.
That anima will be a strong influence in this episode is made apparent when Picard runs into Phillipa Louvois, Senior JAG Officer on Starbase 173 and the woman who prosecuted him in a court martial hearing, which was mandatory after the loss of the USS Stargazer under his command. As a brilliant and independent woman, Louvois carries Picards anima projection; and as is evident in Louvois’ statement to Picard that he is both a “pompous ass” and “a damn sexy man” (Snodgrass & Scheerer, 1989), it is evident that he is carrying her animus projection.
Picard is able to have Data ruled sentient because he is intelligent, self-aware, and has consciousness. One of the ways in which Picard is able to prove this is by Data testifying that Lt. Tasha Yar was special to him. He carries with him the projected image of Yar as we saw at her memorial service. And while Picard did not say it in so many words, that Data was able to feel romantically for Yar, proved that he had an inner anima, or unconscious. And if he had an unconscious, then, logically he would have to have consciousness.
Reference:
Snodgrass, M. M. (Writer) & Scheerer, R. (Director). (1989, February 11). The measure of a man (Season 2, Episode 9) [TV series episode]. In G. Roddenberry (Executive Producer), Star trek: The next generation. Paramount Television.
Original post created 30 June 2021
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