Synopsis: Captain Sisko and Captain Yates adjust to married life on Deep Space Nine, while Kai Winn and Anjohl Terran’s relationship is also in flux on Bajor, and Legate Damar completely changes the relationship between Cardassia and the Dominion.
This episode can be seen as illustrations of the ongoing relationship between the Logos-driven rational conscious ego and the Eros-driven irrational unconscious that Carl (C. G.) Jung called the union of opposites, as part of the individuation process. Or the relationship between the two can be seen as the new third thing, where healing is found, what James Hillman called the metaxy.
In “The Changing Face of Evil” Captain Benjamin Sisko and his new wife, Captain Kasidy Yates, begin to adjust to married life. On Bajor, Kai Winn and Anjohl Terran – who is really the Cardassian Dukat altered to appear Bajoran – begin what they believe will be the reunification of Bajor. On Cardassia, the new alliance that has been formed with the Breen Confederacy pressures Legate Damar to break with the Dominion.
In this episode, in all the relationships above there is a change in dynamics. Sisko learns that he may be the commander of Deep Space Nine, but not of Yates. Winn adapts to her relationship to Anjohl and the Pah-wraith, even upon learning that Anjohl is really a Cardassian and kills her aide, Solbor. And on Cardassia, Damar has been pushed too far in his alliance with the Dominion and declares that they are no longer allies but enemies.
As I noted in the last episode, Jung wrote: Psychology does not know what good and evil are in themselves; it knows them only as judgments about relationships. ‘Good’ is what seems suitable, acceptable, or valuable from a certain point of view; evil is its opposite” (1951/1968, p. 53 [CW 9ii, para. 97]). The changes in points of view can be compared to the ongoing changing relationship between the conscious ego and the unconscious. The new third thing, the relationship established between the two, where change and therefore psychic healing occurs, the metaxy.
Reference:
Jung, C.G. (1968). Aion: Researches into the phenomenology of the self. In R.F.C. Hull (Trans.), The collected works of C. G. Jung (Vol. 9ii). Princeton University Press. (Original work published in 1951)
mydailysoultrek 