Synopsis: Voyager’s crew comes across an alien species that has superior transportation technology and its own version of the Prime Directive that will not allow them to share it with other species.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what Carl (C. G.) Jung would call an occurrence of one-sidedness of the Logos-driven rational conscious ego.
In “Prime Factors” Voyager’s crew is welcomed to the planet Sikaris to experience their hospitality. However, the giving nature of the Sikarans does not extend to the sharing of their technology which could cut Voyager’s return to the Alpha Quadrant in half. Captain Katheryn Janeway is forced to decide whether or not to respect the Sikaran Canon of Laws, which they abide by as Starfleet does by its Prime Directive. Janeway notes that this is the first time that they have been on the receiving side of such a guiding principle and decides that Starfleet values must be maintained at all costs. Other senior officers, among them Lt. Tuvok and Lt. B’Elanna Torres, instead decide that getting home is more important, and trade for the technology through unofficial channels. It turns out the technology is not compatible with Voyager’s systems, the plot is discovered, and Janeway feels betrayed. Janeway tells Tuvok at the end of the episode: “you can use logic to justify almost anything. That’s its power . . . and its flaw” (Perricone et al., 1995).
In this episode Janeway is embodying the mindset of the conscious ego when it is behaving as if there is only one way to view the world, its way, and it refuses to acknowledge any messages from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious. In Janeway’s words, this can also be the thought process associated with logic. This stubbornness Jung called one-sidedness, and it is a danger to our psychic health. However, as I wrote in my last blog post it is an understandable reaction, as these messages from the unconscious come to the purview of the rational ego by way of a complex, and often a complex is created by some sort of psychic wounding. But 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 it to make it stronger and the psyche more whole.
Reference:
Perricone, M. (Writer), Elliot, G. (Writer), & Landau, L. (Director). (1995, March 20). Prime factors (Season 1, Episode 10) [TV series episode]. In M. Piller, R. Berman, & J. Taylor (Executive Producers), Star trek: Voyager. Paramount Television.
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