Synopsis: Seven of Nine is given an opportunity to address a mistake from her past.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of how what Carl (C. G.) Jung called a complex allows the Logos-driven rational conscious ego to incorporate bits of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious into itself. A complex here, being not only a psychic wound but an opportunity for self-knowledge.
In “Survival Instinct” Voyager and her crew visit a trading post, and Captain Kathryn Janeway decides to allow its inhabitants to come aboard Voyager in exchange for her crew being allowed to partake in shore leave. Among the visitors who board Voyager are three former Borg drones – Lansor, PChan, and Marika. While they were Borg drones they were part of a crew with Seven of Nine, who’s ship crash landed on a planet. Unlike Seven, they did not want to return to the collective, and Seven was forced to re-assimilate them. But in doing this, she connected their neural networks together, and now, even though they have escaped the Borg, they cannot free their thoughts from each other. Nor can they remember what happened to them on that planet. They board Voyager intent upon linking with Seven covertly to find their answers. Seven resists. Then Seven decides to help them recover their memories only to find out that she is responsible for the three minds being linked together. The procedure to link with Seven harms the three others, and Seven is given the choice of either having The Doctor sever it, which would lead to their death in weeks, or return them to the Borg Collective, where they will live out a normal lifespan as a drone. Seven decides to have the link disconnected.
In this episode, Seven’s actions, to forcibly link the minds of the three other drones to reunite them with the Borg after the crash, can be compared to when the psyche experiences a wound; even when it is causing a wound to others. When Seven tells them that they are forbidden to access their memories on the planet, this can be analogized to how a complex is created by the conscious ego suppressing bits of unconscious material. Keeping it out of its purview. When the three former drones confront Seven on Voyager, like the conscious ego, she is given a choice. She can continue suppressing the memories or face the truth of her actions. Like the conscious ego, and us, Seven does not like to admit mistakes. But when she goes through with the procedure to remember the past, although it is dangerous and not pleasant, her memory is restored, and she can act on the new information. This is similar to how when the conscious ego acknowledges bits of unconscious material into itself, it becomes stronger and the psyche more whole.
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