Synopsis: A virus spreads through the Enterprise that causes living things to de-evolve.
This episode is an illustration of the greatest fear of the Logos-driven rational conscious ego, that it will be swallowed up by the Eros-driven irrational unconscious shadow.
In “Genesis” the crew of the Enterprise is infected by a virus that was accidentally created by Dr. Beverly Crusher when she was trying to treat Lt. Reginald Barclay for the flu. By trying to control one type of cell she inadvertently set in motion something that de-evolved all life on the vessel. This can be seen as an illustration of the fear that keeps the conscious ego from allowing any part of what Carl (C. G.) Jung called the unconscious shadow to be acknowledged.
Jung wrote that the psyche was comprised of both the conscious ego, the persona that we perceive, and the unconscious, which is the part of our personality that tends to be suppressed in our society in the process of conforming to the standards of the culture that we are born into. This is most especially true of that part of the unconscious that is our shadow, those traits in ourselves that are not condoned in civilized society. The things that make us different from social norms. However, not only negative attributes are found in the shadow, also there are some natural talents that have been suppressed in order to fit in. It can be very scary for the rational ego to begin the process of individuation, which is the integrating of bits of unconscious material into the conscious ego, in order to make the psyche stronger. The fear is of being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of unconscious material that exists in both our personal unconscious, where the shadow is found, and the collective unconscious. However, if an individual is courageous enough to try to bring bits of unconscious material into the conscious ego when made aware of them, then that individual will be engaging in the process of making the psyche more whole.
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