Synopsis: Chief O’Brien is exposed to radiation which allows him to travel into the near future.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of how complexes operate by allowing bits of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious to come into the awareness of the Logos-driven rational conscious ego.
In “Visionary” Chief of Operations Miles O’Brien is exposed to an amount of radiation that is small enough that Dr. Julian Bashir can treat it, but before the treatments are complete O’Brien is susceptible to shifting back and forth from a few hours in the future to the present. This occurs on a day when a group of Romulans are aboard Deep Space Nine with the stated purpose of accessing information on the Dominion. However, because of his moving back and forth between the near future and the present, O’Brien becomes aware that the Romulan’s real purpose is to blow up the station and the wormhole in order to protect themselves from the Dominion.
This plotline is interesting because it illustrates how a complex operates as a conduit between the unconscious and the conscious ego in a couple ways. First, the time-travel that O’Brien experiences can be analogized to how a complex works in that just as O’Brien going forward in time is able to access bits of information from the future to be brought back to the present, a complex allows bits of material from the unconscious to come to the awareness of the conscious ego. When that information from the future is acknowledged and worked with in the present, then the crew of Deep Space Nine is able to save the station from destruction.
On another level, the wormhole can also be compared to a complex, in that it allows information and vessels to pass through it from the previously unknown Gamma Quadrant into the Alpha Quadrant. The Romulans’ plan to blow up both Deep Space Nine and the wormhole to protect themselves from the Dominion, and other threats perceived in the Gamma Quadrant, is an elucidation of what happens when the rational conscious ego feels the need to protect itself from the bits of irrational unconscious material that may come through by way of a complex. It is an understandable reaction, as complexes are generally created by wounds, and the conscious ego has a will to protect itself. However, if the ego does, for whatever reason, acknowledge the bits of unconscious material that manage to come into its awareness, then these can be integrated into the conscious ego to make it stronger and the psyche more whole.
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