Synopsis: Gul Dukat accompanies Major Kira on a search for survivors of a crash of a vessel transporting Bajoran prisoners.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what Carl (C. G.) Jung called projections. Projections are bits of unconscious material that an individual’s conscious ego has placed upon another. If what is projected upon the other is an individual’s own ideal inner mate, then a romantic idealism is what is seen, if what is projected upon the other is from an individual’s own shadow, then an enemy is what is perceived.
In “Indiscretion” Major Kira Nerys learns of where a Cardassian vessel that was carrying Bajoran prisoners may have crashed. Before she can leave to investigate, Gul Dukat is sent by his government to accompany her. We learn that the real reason Dukat is there is because his half-Cardassian half-Bajoran daughter may have been on the vessel. Meanwhile, on Deep Space Nine, Captain Kasidy Yates, who has been a romantic interest of the station’s commander, Captain Benjamin Sisko, takes steps to relocate to the station.
In this episode, Kira and Dukat start as bitter enemies. Arguably, both project that which they hate about themselves upon the other. Yet when they both are able to witness the pain felt by the other over the loss of a loved one, that shared grief allows them to see that there are feelings underneath their militaristic exterior personas. This allows them to soften their positions towards each other, at least a bit. Similarly, when the projection of the shadow upon another is lowered the conscious ego is able to acknowledge a bit of unconscious material it did not want to admit was present in the psyche is there and that it needs to incorporate that into itself to become stronger. As for the relationship between Sisko and Yates, Sisko is at first surprised by the change in status quo and doesn’t know how to react, but later admits to Yates that he hesitated to become more seriously involved with her because he feels that his job was responsible for getting first wife killed. By admitting that to Yates, she is able to understand why he acted like he did. This is much like how it is when an anima or animus projection, that of an inner ideal mate, is withdrawn and the conscious ego becomes aware that there is some bit of appealing unconscious material that it didn’t realize was present in the psyche that it needs to integrate within itself to become stronger and make the psyche more whole.
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