Released: 6 December 1991
Synopsis: Captain Spock volunteers Captain Kirk and the Enterprise A to escort Klingon Chancellor Gorkon to Earth to sign a peace treaty between the Federation and the Klingon Empire.
There are many themes from depth and archetypal psychological running throughout this film, because the goal of both depth psychology and archetypal psychology is the bringing of a peace between the divergent powers within an individual’s psyche. Carl (C. G.) Jung called this lifelong process the union of opposites.
Depth psychology is defined by its study of the unconscious elements of the psyche and perhaps in the film, the irrational unconscious elements can best be analogized to the Klingons, from the rational conscious-ego human perspective that is. When Captain James Tiberius Kirk states that: “I’ve never trusted Klingons and I never will” (Meyers, 1991), this is exactly how the conscious ego objectifies the irrational bits or our psyche that we cannot control. Correspondingly, on the Klingon side, General Chang also does not believe in peace between the two sides. The reality of the situation is captured when Kirk says to Captain Spock: “We’re both extremists. Reality is probably somewhere in between” (Meyers, 1991).
This in-between place brings up a concept from archetypal psychology, a branch of depth psychology founded by James Hillman. That in-between place Hillman called the metaxy, the space where soul is made.
There is also an interesting limiting of this idea made by Chancellor Azetbur, who rises to that position after the death of her father, Gorkon, who’s idealism started the peace movement. Azetbur states: “Human rights, the very name is racist” (Meyers, 1991). And indeed she had a point. Maybe even on Earth a better term would be sentient rights.
Reference:
Meyers, N. (Director).(1991). Star trek VI: The undiscovered country [Film]. Paramount Pictures.
Original post created 4 October 2021
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