Synopsis: Dr. Bashir and Chief O’Brien go beyond Starfleet protocols to find a cure for the virus that Section 31 inflected Security Chief Odo with.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of Carl (C. G.) Jung’s concept of the union of opposites; wherein the Logos-driven rational conscious ego integrates bits of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious into itself
In “Extreme Measures” Dr. Julian Bashir and Chief of Operations Miles O’Brien devise a way to get a message to Starfleet’s Section 31. The transmission will state that Bashir has found a cure for the virus that had been implanted in Security Chief Odo so that he would infect the entire Founder race. They tell Captain Benjamin Sisko about what Section 31 has done and their plan. Sisko calls Section 31’s actions genocide. After the message is received by Section 31, Luther Sloan appears in Bashir’s quarters. Sloan refuses to give Bashir and O’Brien any information about how to cure the virus, so Bashir and O’Brien use a Romulan mind probe to go into Sloan’s memories to obtain the information. Sloan tries to commit suicide to prevent this, but he cannot. The needed information is recovered, and Odo is given the treatment he needs to regain health. In this episode, Bashir, O’Brien, and Sisko, as Starfleet officers are appalled by Section 31’s covert actions, which go against everything that they were told Starfleet stands for. But what moves them into action to try to correct the inflicted wrongs is their love for Odo. This can be analogized to the rational conscious ego being touched by irrational emotions from the unconscious, and then acting in ways that it would not normally perceive itself as capable of. This is an example of the conscious ego acknowledging and integrating bits of unconscious material into itself, to make it stronger and the psyche more whole.
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