Synopsis: Voyager’s Emergency Medical Holographic Program is activated and the doctor finds himself alone on the ship. Or is he?
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what Carl (C. G.) Jung would call Trickster energy. Experiencing this type of energy can be very challenging for the Logos-driven rational conscious ego because it takes it out of its comfortable world view that it is in control.
In “Projections” the Emergency Medical Holographic (EMH) Program is activated and the ship’s computer tells the doctor that he is alone on Voyager. Yet, the next thing he knows Lt. B’Elanna Torres arrives in Sick Bay and informs him that most of the crew has been captured by Kazons, but that Captain Kathryn Janeway is still aboard and needs medical assistance. Then Lt. Reginald Barclay appears and tells the doctor that he is not a holograph, but the actual Dr. Lewis Zimmerman, the scientist who created the EMH Program. Barclay also informs the doctor that he is alive but the crew are holographic images, and that he needs to destroy Voyager or he will die of radiation poisoning. Next, Commander Chakotay appears to tell the doctor he is trapped on the holodeck and that if he tries to destroy Voyager his program will be lost. Shortly thereafter, Kes appears as the doctor’s wife. The doctor must choose who to believe, Barclay or Chakotay. The doctor chooses to believe Chakotay, reappears in the holodeck and all is back to normal, or is it?
Here what the doctor is experiencing can be compared to what the conscious ego goes through when it is confronted with Trickster energy. Up is down and down seems up. Trickster energy takes the conscious ego out of its secure knowledge that the world is as it perceives it and lets the ego know that there are some things out of its control. That this is difficult for the ego, and that it has a strong preference to stay with what is known is demonstrated when the doctor chooses to believe Chakotay who is telling him that he is a holograph, instead of listening to Barclay, who tells the doctor that he is real. It is too big a leap for the doctor to make, which is often what change is for the conscious ego.
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