Synopsis: Dr. Crusher risks her career in order to solve the mystery of a murder aboard the Enterprise.
In this episode we can see how the Logos-driven rational conscious ego, here symbolized by Starfleet Command, can try to suppress input from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious, here embodied in Dr. Beverly Crusher.
In “Suspicions” Crusher acts on two different instincts. First, she feels that a discovery made by a Ferengi scientist, Dr. Reyga, is an achievement that needs to be acknowledged. Second, she feels that his death was not due to the failure of his theory but caused by another individual who wanted to steal his invention. In both cases, Crusher had to buck the patriarchal system that is Starfleet, which prefers to rely solely on empirical information and not gut impulses.
That Crusher has difficulties in persuading Starfleet, and also the Federation, of the importance of Reyga’s discovery is evidenced in her conversation with Guinan that frames the first half of the episode. “Suspicions” begins by Crusher telling Guinan that she is no longer a doctor on the ship and tells her how that came to be. How she attended the Altine Conference and heard of Reyga’s invention and knew it was important, and how she had to beg Captain Jean-Luc Picard to host a demonstration of the technology, but then only four individuals accepted her invitation.
Then after the death of Reyga, how Crusher instinctively knew that he was murdered, while those in power wanted her to drop her investigation. But Guinan, who is not a Starfleet officer, encouraged Crusher to trust herself. Crusher did, and although initially severely punished for going outside Starfleet rules, when she exposed the murderer she was reinstated. Starfleet became stronger because she persevered, and the technology Reyga invented is valuable. Much as how the conscious ego is strengthened when it acknowledges bits of unconscious material and integrates it into itself.
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