Synopsis: The Enterprise is tasked with providing transportation to a mediator to a planet to end a civil war, but without understanding that he is syphoning off negative emotions onto Counselor Troi.
In this episode, Ambassador Ves Alkar embodies a belief that is endemic in Western culture, that if he is able to relieve himself of negative thoughts and unwanted emotions, he can do great things. He tells Captain Jean-Luc Picard that long ago he discovered that he had the ability to transfer his negative thoughts and unwanted emotions onto others, which has given him the ability to do great things. To be of service to others by being a peacemaker. He has no remorse that he uses others as “receptacles” for his negative energy or that it kills them in the process.
Alkar, and Western culture as well, are misguided in the idea that our shadow traits should just be discarded. In reality, our shadow traits, when integrated into the conscious ego, make our psyches stronger. We cannot discard them because they are parts of ourselves. Instead of discarding them, or worse, projecting them onto others, we need to accept these aspects of our psyche to become more whole.
Original post created 27 October 2021
mydailysoultrek 