Synopsis: Lt. Dax summons the memories of a previous Dax host to investigate murders aboard Deep Space Nine.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of how the process of acknowledging and integrating the Eros-driven irrational unconscious shadow into the Logos-driven rational conscious ego can be uncomfortable and sometimes dangerous.
In “Field of Fire” two Starfleet officers have been murdered on Deep Space Nine. Lt. Ezri Dax feels compelled to help solve the crimes when she experiences a vision of herself with one of the victim’s blood on her hands. She then has a vision of Joran Dax, one of the previous Dax hosts, who’s memories that other hosts, including Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax, had tried to suppress. Joran Dax urges Ezri Dax to use the Rite of Immergence to allow her to recover his memories to help discover the identity of the murderer. Eventually Ezri Dax does just that and the murderer is found. But when Ezri Dax sends Joran Dax away from her consciousness, he reminds her that he is now part of her.
In this episode Joran Dax can be seen as an embodiment of the unconscious shadow, that bit of unconscious material that the conscious ego does not want to acknowledge and integrate into itself. Ezri Dax can be analogized then to the conscious ego. When she does acknowledge Joran Dax, she is able to ascertain the identity of the murder, because Joran Dax was in fact a murderer himself. Yet, after she has used his knowledge to find the killer she rejects his impulse to kill the murderer, and instead calls for medics to treat his injuries so that the killer may be tried for his crimes. Ezri Dax then once again suppresses the memories of Joran Dax. But before he leaves her immediate sight, he reminds her that he is now part of her. This can be seen as a physical manifestation of the process of individuation, the way by which the conscious ego acknowledges and integrates bits of unconscious material into itself. And although the ego may not want to consciously admit it, it is forever changed, but this change does make it stronger and the psyche more whole.
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