Synopsis: Major Kira leaves Deep Space Nine for Bajor looking for peace but finding political intrigue.
This episode illustrates how bits of unconscious materials trying to break through into conscious awareness are embodied in two of the lead characters, Major Kira Nerys and Commander Benjamin Sisko, and how they both respond to it.
After the ego inflation that Kira might have felt for bringing the resistance leader Li Nalas back to Bajor, in the last episode “The Homecoming,” she is then replaced by him on Deep Space Nine and loses the identity that her ego had connected with the position. In “The Circle” Kira goes to a monastery to try to reclaim inner peace and listen to her unconscious, but it is telling her things that her ego rejects. Like many of us, when we become aware of bits of unconscious material she feels: “It’s me. . . . I’m the one who’s crooked.. . . I’m useless here . . . I need to feel useful” (Fields & Allen, 1993). Kira was feeling bits of her unconscious trying to break through to her conscious ego but was not quite able to acknowledge and integrate them into her rational ego.
Meanwhile, Sisko is told by Starfleet Command that he is not to interfere with internal affairs on Bajor, that to do so would be a violation of the Prime Directive of non-interference. However, Sisko’s workaround is that he rationalizes that if the events of Bajor affect the station, then they are no longer internal, and he can act. This bit of rationalization was the conscious ego’s way of acknowledging an unconscious feeling that something was wrong and that Kira was in danger. It was fortunate that he listened to his gut instincts as Kira was indeed in danger, having been kidnapped by Circle forces when she was at the monastery. By being able to acknowledge and integrate bits of his unconscious, Sisko’s ego made a stronger decision. Because Sisko’s ego listened to his unconscious, or put another way, his psyche listened to what his body, or soma, was trying to tell him, great harm was avoided. This is what happens when the psyche is not only made more whole, but it also connects to the soma that we all embody.
Reference:
Fields, P. A. (Writer), & Allen, C. (Director). (1993, October 3). The circle (Season 2, Episode 2) [TV series episode]. In M. Piller & R. Berman (Executive Producers), Star trek: Deep space nine. Paramount Television.
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