Synopsis: Captain Sisko defies a warning from the Prophets and leads an attack against Cardassia and the Dominion.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what can happen when the Logos-driven rational conscious ego suppresses bits of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious.
In “Tears of the Prophets” Captain Benjamin Sisko is ordered to lead an invasion of Cardassia only to be warned by the Prophets that his place is on Bajor not in the invasion force. When Sisko tells Admiral William Ross about his vision, Ross tells him that he is either a Starfleet officer or the Emissary to the Prophets but not both. Given this ultimatum, Sisko chooses Starfleet. In his absence Gul Dukat, who has become the host of a pah-wraith, comes to Deep Space Nine, attacks both Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax and the Orb of Contemplation, killing them both. Sisko is deeply wounded by Dukat’s actions which led to the Bajorans’ loss of the Prophets and his loss of Dax.
In this episode, Sisko being forced to choose between Starfleet and the Bajoran Prophets, and choosing Starfleet, can be analogized to when the rational conscious ego suppresses the bits of information it receives from the irrational unconscious. Going against instincts can have dire effects, as it did for Sisko here, but who is to say that it is not the way life is supposed to pan out? Much like the choices that Sisko makes propel the action of the television series.
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