Synopsis: Mr. Neelix tries to prove his usefulness by obtaining a map of an unknown area of space.
This episode is an illustration of how what Carl (C. G.) Jung called complexes can make the Logos-driven rational conscious ego come to terms with bits of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious.
In “Fair Trade” Voyager and her crew enter an area in space that is at the limit of Mr. Neelix’s knowledge of the quadrant, and he is feeling that he has ended his usefulness to the ship. He is so worried that he tries to get a map of the area through what turns out to be nefarious means. An old friend leads him further and further astray, until someone is killed on a trading station and two members of the crew are wrongly accused of the crime.
In this episode, Neelix’s feeling of inferiority, which is a complex many of us share, is triggered when he feels that he is no longer useful to Captain Kathryn Janeway. He fears that she may just put him off the ship. There is no evidence to that effect, but because it is a complex that is involved, Neelix cannot help but have these feelings. This leads him to do things that he normally wouldn’t; again, he can’t help himself. But complexes are not necessarily negative, they are also ways that we can learn more about ourselves, if we choose to do so. Neelix learns his lesson the hard way, but fortunately he does learn it, and remains on the crew. This can be analogized to how sometimes it is necessary to learn lessons from the complex, but it will never completely leave the vessel of the psyche.
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