Synopsis: Chief O’Brien tries to recover from memories of being in prison for twenty years, implanted in him by an alien race while he was on a mission on their planet.
One of the several depth psychological themes that runs through this episode is how it can be seen as an illustration of one of Carl (C. G.) Jung’s central theories. That of how a complex will continue to try to bring bits of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious to the attention of the Logos-driven rational conscious ego, until the ego finally acknowledges the material and integrates it into itself.
In “Hard Time” Chief Miles O’Brien has had memories of being held in prison for twenty years implanted in his mind. Part of the memory is the appearance of another individual, Eechar. When O’Brien first comes back to the station he tells everyone that the memories planted in him were of him spending twenty years in captivity in isolation. He completely denies the existence of EeChar in his memories. Because of this EeChar keeps appearing to him as other important individuals in his life. This is disconcerting to O’Brien and puts him on edge. Because he is hiding the existence of EeChar, he refuses to talk to a counselor. This leads O’Brien to being relieved of duties and coming home and almost hitting his child. The guilt of this brings O’Brien to the edge of committing suicide. Bashir finds O’Brien with a phaser at his throat, and it is only at this most dire of moments that O’Brien admits to Bashir that he has been lying about the memories. That in the memories there was another individual incarcerated with him, EeChar, and how O’Brien killed him when he thought that he was secretly hiding food from him.
In this episode, EeChar can be seen as a physical manifestation of a complex. Each time that EeChar’s existence is denied in O’Brien’s outer world, that of his conscious ego, it erupts as a complex demanding attention. This in turn causes O’Brien’s conscious energy to put greater effort into suppressing it. The effort eats away at O’Brien’s ability to handle other tasks and interactions with others. The stress causing more psychic damage in the process. When O’Brien’s ego is so distressed that he tries to kill himself, O’Brien finally admits EeChar exists. Once that is done, the healing begins. This reflects Jung’s teaching that a complex is an opportunity for growth through a gaining of self-knowledge. But when it is continually suppressed by the conscious ego, it will continue to erupt until the ego has no choice but to acknowledge its existence. When the complex is acknowledged by the conscious ego and the bits of unconscious material contained in it integrated into the ego, then the ego becomes stronger and the psyche more whole.
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