Synopsis: Sloan from Section 31 uses Dr. Bashir in an intelligence operation.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of how necessary the Eros-driven irrational unconscious is in the psyche to balance out the Logos-driven rational conscious.
In “Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges” the Romulan Senator Cretak visits Deep Space Nine before a conference that she and Dr; Julian Bashir will attend on Romulus. Luther Sloan from Starfleet’s covert Section 31 appears in Dr. Julian Bashir’s quarters as he gets ready to attend a conference. Sloan wants Bashir to evaluate the Romulans. Bashir goes to the conference, traveling with Cretak and Starfleet Admiral William Ross. Sloan is also at the conference, posing as a cartographer. Once on Romulus Bashir speaks to Ross about Sloan, who he does not trust. When Ross is incapacitated, Bashir brings his concerns to Cretak. Bashir is then abducted by Koval, the Chairman of the Tal Shiar. He tries to extract information from Bashir but is unsuccessful. Bashir is then brought before the Romulan Continuing Committee. Bashir tells the committee what he knows. Sloan is then brought in, and it looks as if he is killed. Bashir returns to Deep Space Nine and once Sloan visits him in his quarters. Sloan explains that Section 31 has a different way of doing things, but for what he asked Bashir to do, he needed someone with Bashir’s perspective.
In this episode Section 31 can be analogized to the irrational unconscious embodied in Sloan and Starfleet itself as the rational conscious ego embodied in Bashir. Bashir has a rational approach to moving through a situation, whereas Sloan uses deception and subterfuge. Yet, Sloan needed a partner in this mission who was more rational than he was, and Bashir needed someone like Sloan to manipulate the plan so that he would return home safely. This can be seen as an illustration of how the union of opposites, the acknowledgement and acceptance of bits of unconscious material in the conscious ego, can make the ego stronger and the psyche more whole. We can theorize that this is similar to the effect on the unconscious, but we cannot know if this is true, because by definition the unconscious as a totality is unknowable to the conscious ego.
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