Synopsis: An injured alien latches onto Lt. Torres for survival and The Doctor consults a holographic representation of a notorious exobiologist.
This episode, similar to the last one, “Infinite Regress,” can be seen as an illustration of how a complex can allow the Logos-driven rational conscious ego to incorporate bits of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious into itself, in what Carl (C. G.) Jung called individuation, the process by which a psyche becomes more whole.
In “Nothing Human” when Voyager and her crew respond to what they believe to be a distress call, they come across a vessel with a single alien lifeform aboard. Thinking that they can help, they beam the alien to Sick Bay where it latches its body onto Lt. B’Elanna Torres. The Doctor tells Captain Kathryn Janeway that he does not possess the expertise to treat Torres and Janeway suggests consulting an exobiologist. The scientist that The Doctor consults is the Cardassian Crell Moset, who was responsible for the death of the grandfather of the Bajoran crewmember, Ensign Tabor, and whom Torres wants no help from. Nevertheless, The Doctor consults Moset for his expertise, and the alien is separated from Torres successfully. However, afterward, The Doctor deletes Moset’s program.
In this episode, similar to how the virus that disabled the Borg cube can be seen as a psychic wound and the neuro-interlink that reached out to Seven can be analogized to a complex in “Infinite Regress,” the attachment of the alien to Torres’s body can be seen as the wound and The Doctor’s need for the holographic program can be understood as a complex. And here the knowledge of Moset can be analogized to bits of material from the unconscious. In this episode it is even more vital that Moset’s knowledge be used to heal Torres’s, in much the same way that unconscious material can be used to heal, and in doing so make the ego stronger and the psyche more whole. But, just as in the last episode, sometimes it is not a pleasant experience. Which is why The Doctor felt he had to delete the lifesaving program even though it saved Torres’s life.
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