Synopsis: Lt. Barclay, now serving at Starfleet Headquarters, devises a way to communicate with Voyager and her crew in the Delta Quadrant.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of how Carl (C. G.) Jung’s concept of a complex works to allow the Logos-driven rational conscious ego to acknowledge and integrate into itself bits of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious.
In “Pathfinder” Lt. Reginald Barclay, formerly serving aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise-D speaks to his former crewmate, Counselor Deanna Troi, about his obsession with Voyager and her crew. He created a holodeck program where he can interact with them, and his yearning to speak to them personally has led him to devise a way to create an artificial micro wormhole to communicate with them. When his superiors refuse to put his plan into action, he does so without authorization, and is successful.
In this episode, Barclay’s obsession with being with Voyager’s crew can be analogized to a complex. A complex in Jungian terms is a way to gain self-knowledge which in turn can lead to psychic growth and healing, when it is admitted and worked with. Here, Barclay’s using a forbidden micro wormhole to exchange messages with Voyager in the Delta Quadrant, can be compared to the conscious ego acknowledging and integrating bits of material from the unconscious, making it stronger and the psyche more whole.
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