Synopsis: Three ambassadors from a race having its first cultural exchanges with the Federation come aboard the Enterprise with different missions to understand humans.
If the last episode illustrated the depth psychological concept of ego inflation and deflation, this episode elucidates another central idea from depth psychology, that of projection. Projection in this sense is what happens when an individual sees something in another individual that mirrors something that is in their unconscious. If the projection is positive, then either romance or friendship is possible. If the projection is of a bit of unconscious psychic material that society, and therefore the conscious ego, deems negative, then tension will ensue between the individuals until the projection is acknowledged and lifted. This is often called a complex, another core theory of depth psychology, which can be seen as an opportunity for the conscious ego to become stronger and the psyche more whole.
In “Liaisons” three Iyaaran ambassadors come aboard the Enterprise. Loquel is assigned to Counselor Deanna Troi, to look after his needs. A second ambassador, Byleth was assigned to Commander William Riker, but asks to be assigned to Lt. Worf. The third Iyaaran, Voval, is initially just identified as a pilot that will take Captain Jean-Luc Picard to the Iyaaran Homeworld, but we later find out that he is also an ambassador. Unbeknownst to the crew, each ambassador has a mission to understand one particular human emotion. Loquel – pleasure, Byleth – antagonism, and Voval – love.
An example of projection can be seen in the following conversation. Worf says to Lt. Commander Data: “Ambassador Byleth is demanding, temperamental and rude.” To which Data replies: “You share all of those qualities in abundance. Perhaps you should try to build on your similarities” (Carrigan-Fauci et al., 1993). Worf is annoyed by this suggestion, which is how the rational ego behaves when it is first confronted by the bits of unconscious material in the complex. But as mentioned above, by acknowledging the material and integrating it into the ego is how the ego becomes stronger and the psyche becomes more whole. This idea of working with bits of psychic material through a complex is so central to the depth psychology of Carl (C. G.) Jung, that at one point he wanted to call his branch of depth psychology that he founded not analytical psychology, but complex psychology.
Reference:
Carrigan-Fauci, J. (Writer), Rich, L. (Writer), & Bole, C. (Director). (1993, September 25). Liaisons (Season 7, Episode 2) [TV series episode]. In M. Piller, R. Berman, & J. Taylor (Executive Producers), Star trek: The next generation. Paramount Television.
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