Synopsis: Dr. Crusher is abducted by a group of terrorists on Rutia IV.
It is interesting that the conflict at the heart of this storyline is very similar to that of the last episode in “The Hunted.” The situation in which one group has broken off from the majority when they feel that they have become disempowered, and then want to be heard.
In “The Hunted,” after visiting the planet Angosia III, which seeks to become part of the United Federation of Planets, the Enterprise is attacked by an inmate from an Angosian penal colony, who wants his fellow soldiers given a place in society. In “The High Ground” Dr. Beverly Crusher is abducted by the Ansata, the descendants of a group that sought autonomy seventy years earlier on Rutia IV and have resorted to terrorist methods in an attempt to gain this goal.
Put side by side, both these episodes reflect how the Logos-driven, rational, conscious ego, prefers not to acknowledge the Eros-driven bits of irrational unconscious material that come to its attention. These bits of unconscious material tend to surface in a complex, which as Carl Gustav (C. G.) Jung explains, we all have, and ideally should not be understood to be a negative occurrence, but rather an opportunity to grow and make the psyche more whole.
In “The Hunted,” the former soldiers who had been imprisoned break out and confront the powers that be that they have a place in society. In “The High Ground,” again, the terrorists are trying to get the attention of the powers that be to address their demands. Acknowledgment and integration are what the unconscious seeks from the conscious ego. But if the bits of unconscious matter that emerge into consciousness are continually suppressed, those bits will then come out at the most inconvenient of times. When not attended to, the bits of unconscious material in the complex can seem to hold the rational ego hostage, just as what has physically manifested in these two episodes.
Original post created 5 August 2021
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