Synopsis: Lt. La Forge is infected with a parasite that reproduces by taking over the host body.
In my last post, on the episode “Night Terrors” I wrote that “from a depth psychological perspective, the devastating effects of not being able to dream can literally be seen as this field’s worst nightmare. Depth psychology by definition concerns the study of the unconscious and one very important way in which the unconscious speaks to individuals is through dreams.” In this episode however, we have just the reverse, the parasite that infects Lt. Geordi La Forge is turning him into an alien species that is purely instinctive, which in depth psychological terms means that the psyche is completely unconscious.
Archetypal psychology, which is a branch of depth psychology pioneered by James Hillman, identifies different archetypes as a way to describe how the psyche functions. He sees psychology as the relationship between different archetypes within our psyche. He also uses one archetypal relationship in particular to explain his theories, that of the pairing of the senex, the old wise man or the wise woman, and the puer or puella, the embodiment of eternal youthfulness. Hillman’s idea is that our psyches are always in a flux between these two archetypal energies, and that the area in between them is an in-between place, the metaxy, where soul is made.
The problem for the crew of the Enterprise in “Night Terrors” is that the conscious could not access the unconscious. The issue for La Forge in “Identity Crisis,” is that the unconscious was in the process of completely taking over the conscious. Both of these situations were problems with the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious. They were either or situations, completely one-sided, instead of a sense of balance. And while by definition, our conscious cannot know the unconscious, our psyche holds both and needs both. And just as it is for the relationship between the senex or wise woman and the puer or puella, the place in-between the conscious and the unconscious is where soul is made.
Original post created 13 September 2021
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