Synopsis: Captain Janeway provides safe harbor for a group of telepathic refugees.
This episode can be seen as one more illustration of how the Logos-driven rational conscious ego incorporates 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 “Counterpoint” Voyager and her crew are traveling through an area of space controlled by the Devore, a species who’s Cardinal Protocol prohibits telepaths. This requires several telepathic members of the crew, as well as a group of telepathic refugees aboard Voyager, to be put in a kind of transporter stasis field each time that the Devore inspection officers board the vessel. This goes on until one such officer, Inspector Kashyk comes aboard Voyager separately and asks Captain Kathryn Janeway for asylum. While initially Janeway is suspicious of him, Kashyk gives her information about plot to take Voyager and tells her he has been aware of the refugees that Voyager is hiding. Kashyk eventually gains Janeway’s trust and he stays aboard Voyager as she travels to locate a scientist, Torat, who may be able to locate a wormhole that the refuges can use to get to safety. Torat is uncertain that he can find it and Janeway tells him to follow his instincts. He finds the wormhole, but a warship from the Devore appears. Kashyk tells Janeway he will go back to the warship to make sure the refugees are able to escape, kissing Janeway goodbye before he leaves in his shuttle. Instead, Kashyk betrays Janeway, but it is too late. The refugees make their way through the wormhole in two of Voyager’s shuttles.
In this episode the process of individuation can be analogized to how Janeway reacted to the situation she found herself and her crew in. Arguably, by taking aboard the refugees and then finding a way for them to evade the Devore she was violating the Prime Directive, something unthinkable earlier in the series. This would seem to indicate that she was allowing emotions and intuition to be part of her decision making process. This was also evident when she encouraged Torat to follow his instincts in finding the wormhole. And the symbolism in this was when Kashyk kissed Janeway goodbye before leaving Voyager. By allowing herself to feel emotions and intuit a course of action Janeway was able to find a way to save the telepathic refugees. This can be compared to how when the conscious ego acknowledges bits of material from the unconscious, the ego becomes stronger for it and the psyche more whole.
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