Synopsis: Ensign Kim is caught in a subspace vacuole while trying to transport back to Voyager.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of how what Carl (C. G.) Jung calls a complex can operate as a vessel that brings bits of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious to the attention of the Logos-driven rational conscious ego.
In “Emanations” Ensign Harry Kim, Lt. Thomas Paris, and Lt. B’Elanna Torres transport to the surface of an asteroid in search of what they thought was a new element, previously unknown to science. What they found instead was a burial ground. When a subspace vacuole appears on the asteroid, Paris and Torres were able to transport back to Voyager, however Kim was caught in the vacuole and instead was transported to the dimension in which it originated; and taking the place of a female who was in the process of being buried. The female alien, Ptera, is revived by the doctor, but loses her faith and when she tries to return to her dimension, she dies. However, Kim is able to figure out a way to get back to his dimension safely, although he dies for a while in the process.
The subspace vacuole here can be analogized to the complex, in that it allowed a point of connection between two dimensions, that of Voyager and that of the Vhnori. It is also interesting that if we equate the Vhnori and Ptera as coming from the unconscious, and our dimension and Kim as being embodiments of our consciousness, then it also shows two ways in which the meeting of the opposites can go.
Kim is able to access bits of information from the Vhnori and to bring it back to Voyager, just as a complex allows bits of material from the unconscious to come to the awareness of the conscious ego. However, Ptera is confused and terrified and reacts much as how 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. As I mentioned in my post on the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Visionary,” this 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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