Synopsis: Voyager becomes overrun by viral lifeforms that grow very rapidly.
This episode is an illustration of how what Carl (C. G.) Jung calls complexes erupt and become so great in strength that they force the Logos-driven rational conscious ego to come to terms with bits of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious.
Much like the last episode, “The Q and the Grey,” in “Macrocosm” Voyager’s crew must deal with something from outside themselves which is growing more powerful minute by minute. The difference being that here, it is not something outside the vessel, but something that is inside of it. When Captain Kathryn Janeway and Neelix return to the ship after being away on a trade mission, they find the crew incapacitated by a viral life form that The Doctor inadvertently brought aboard Voyager after he tried to provide assistance to minors on a planet infected with this virus. The microcosms aboard Voyager quickly turn into macrocosms and take over the ship. Eventually, The Doctor creates an antidote to the virus and Janeway devise a plan that is successful in eradicating the macrocosms and order is restored to the ship.
In this episode, the microcosms that come aboard Voyager can be analogized to complexes, one of the ways bits of material from an individual’s unconscious come to the attention of the conscious ego. Often complexes are created by psychic wounds. Sometimes the easiest thing to do is to suppress the unwanted feelings that come from it, to deal with the discomfort later. But if ignored long enough a complex can become much bigger, just as the microcosms grew into macrocosms. The antidote to the damage caused by a complex is to acknowledge and work with it, and restore a new and stronger order to the psyche.
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