Synopsis: Odo comes across a fellow changeling, which causes him to reevaluate his life.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of how difficult it can be to acknowledge and integrate of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious into the Logos-driven rational conscious.
In “Chimera” while returning back to Deep Space Nine in a runabout, Odo and Chief Miles O’Brien encounter a lone shapeshifter. Odo recognizes the shapeshifter, Laas, as not a Founder, but like him, one of the hundred that had been sent out to explore the galaxy. Odo takes Laas back to the station and introduces him to what it is like to be part of the Great Link. In so doing, Laas gains access to Odo’s inner thoughts and emotions, and urges him to leave Deep Space Nine with him, in pursuit of others like them, rather than to live on the station among humanoid monoforms. Laas understands from the Great Link also that the reason Odo remains on Deep Space Nine is because of his love for Colonel Kira Nerys. Laas also knows how deeply torn Odo is in this choice. Laas agrees to stay for a while, but then kills a Klingon in a fight and is detained. Kira helps him escape and tells him she will send Odo to meet him. She then admits to Odo what she did and urges Odo to go meet Laas. Odo does so, but only to tell Laas that he is not going with him, but is instead returning to the station to be with Kira.
In this episode Odo is forced to face how different his life could have been, had he chosen to live like Laas, in a world more of instincts, without words that are able to deceive. This can be compared to how a rational conscious ego can be overwhelmed by the irrational unconscious, when it is encountered unexpectedly, which is often the way it happens. Odo, who arguably has been suppressing his shapeshifting abilities to maintain humanoid form to be with Kira, suddenly has a glimpse of what could have been when he enters into the Great Link with Laas. In this regard, the Great Link can be analogized to a complex, which connects the conscious ego with the unconscious. But once again given the opportunity to chose he returns to Kira and the familiarity of Deep Space Nine. This can be compared to the conscious ego, having acknowledged bits of unconscious material then integrating them into itself, to make it stronger and the psyche more whole.
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