Synopsis: On Deep Space Nine Lt. Commander Worf prepares to go on a mission to ensure Lt. Commander Dax’s place in Sto-vo-kor, while on Earth Captain Sisko has a vision.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of how when the Logos-driven rational conscious ego is deflated bits of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious have a better chance of coming into its awareness through a complex.
In “Image in the Sand” Captain Benjamin Sisko is on leave on Earth trying to figure out a way to reestablish contact with the Bajoran Prophets. The Prophets send Sisko a vision of him uncovering a woman’s face in the sand. The woman turns out to be Sisko’s birth mother, Sarah Sisko. Someone he did not know existed. He sets out to find her. Meanwhile on Deep Space Nine, Lt. Commander Worf feels that he must win a great battle in honor of the deceased Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax, in order for her to go to Sto-vo-kor.
In this episode, both on Earth and on Deep Space Nine, we can see how when the rational conscious ego is deflated and feeling less sure that it has all the correct answers, it can sometimes be easier for bits of material to come to its awareness through a complex. This is because a complex is almost always connected with a psychic wound and allowing oneself to feel the pain can lead to self-knowledge. On Earth the conscious ego is embodied in Sisko, and when he is most despondent, the Prophets send him a vision that leads to him learning his true parentage. On Deep Space Nine, where the conscious ego is embodied in Worf, his grief breaks down his defenses enough so that he can hear the callings of his instincts as to how to honor his dead wife. Both these revelations may have occurred eventually without the pain; but then again, they may not have. In any case, allowing the psychic energy from the unconscious into the purview of the ego led to greater self-knowledge, which in turn leads to a stronger ego and a more whole psyche.
mydailysoultrek 