Synopsis: Captain Picard falls in love with an officer newly transferred to the Enterprise.
In this episode, what grips me more than anything else from a depth psychological perspective is the way in which the Eros-driven unconscious subtle body is abandoned in the wrong-headed quest for privileging the Logos-driven conscious ego.
There are very few episodes in Star Trek: The Next Generation in which Captain Jean-Luc Picard is actively shown in a romantic relationship. Even fewer, when the link is with another human, let alone a Starfleet officer under his command. In “Lessons” the object of his attention is Lt. Commander Nella Daren.
What seems to bring Picard and Daren together throughout the episode is a shared love of music. There is a scene in which Picard tells Daren what music and having someone to share it with means to him. Their screen time together is mostly playing music. For a while, it looks as if Picard’s conscious ego, will allow bits of material from his unconscious subtle body to integrate with it, to make both his ego stronger and his psyche more whole.
However, at the end of “Lessons,” after Daren survives a dangerous mission, Picard tells her that when he thought she was dead he withdrew into his quarters, shut down, and thought that his music, that he shared with her, would never bring him joy again. He tells her that because of this, he knows that he could never order her to risk her life again. At that point, Daren tells him that she has applied for a transfer. They tell each other that they will be able to continue to see each other and Daren tells Picard not to give up on his music. But that Picard, who courageously explores the vast unknown of space is not willing to risk losing “his” Daren and that without her “his” music will have no meaning, reveals a deep shadow in his unconscious. That being his inability to risk what he cannot control – love – and a certain arrogant possessiveness over things and people that do not belong to him.
mydailysoultrek 