Synopsis: Quark’s mother, Ishka, is accused of unlawfully earning profit on the Ferengi homeworld, while on Deep Space Nine Commander Sisko meets Captain Yates.
Like the last Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode I wrote about “Explorers,” this episode also contains illustrations of what Carl (C. G.) Jung would call projection. Projection being the way that one projects bits of material from one’s Eros-driven irrational unconscious onto another, in order to make it visible to the Logos-driven rational conscious ego. When we project the bit of unconscious material that is our inner ideal, this can be how we initially are attracted to another, particularly a romantic partner. When we project a bit of unconscious material that is our shadow, we will be disgusted with the actions of the other, as they are reflecting those bits of ourselves that we do not want to admit are a part of us.
In “Family Business” Commander Benjamin Sisko finally meets Captain Kasidy Yates, a woman that his son, Jake Sisko, has been telling everyone on the station is perfect for him. And as it turns out, they do have much in common. Meanwhile on the Ferengi homeworld, Quark and Rom must confront their mother with committing the sin of earning a profit. Something that is illegal because she is female. Quark calls his mother, Ishka, selfish and only interested in profit. Which of course is a fairly accurate summation of how the residents and visitors to Deep Space Nine describe him.
In the meeting of Sisko and Yates, not only Sisko, but it seems most of the senior officers of the station, have projected onto Yates their concept of a perfect mate for Sisko. It is a heavy load, but it seems at the end of the episode that Yates has accepted these projections, and that indeed these two individuals do have much in common. Including baseball, which Sisko learned once he let Yates be herself, and not just the object of his projection. As for the relationship between Quark and his mother, that Quark is disgusted by her making illegal profit, one way to look at this is that he is projecting his unconscious shadow onto her. But that would be a human way to see it. Quark could also be projecting an unconscious ideal onto her, as Quark does seem to value profit above all. Or does he?
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