Synopsis: After the Delta Flyer crash lands on a planet, Lt. Torres becomes an inspiration for a poet.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what Carl (C. G.) Jung called projection. Projection being one way in which the Logos-driven rational conscious ego may become aware of bits of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious.
In “Muse” Lt. B’Elanna Torres and Ensign Harry Kim are sent on an away mission in the Delta Flyer. The Flyer is damaged and Torres orders Kim into an escape pod. Meanwhile, the Flyer crashes on a planet with Torres in it. A poet, Kelis, discovers an injured unconscious Torres, and tends her wounds. He also ties her up, so that she cannot escape, and listens to the ship’s logs, which gives him information and inspiration to write a play for his patron. The patron is so pleased that he asks for another play. Kelis returns to the damaged Flyer to find Torres now awake. He tells Torres that he believes her to be an Eternal. Torres uses this to convince him to untie her, after which she tells him to leave. In a few days Kelis returns, and Torres strikes a deal with him, that she will give him more inspiration for a new play in return for dilithium to repair the Flyer. Torres continues to work to repair the Flyer, while at the same time helping Kelis with his play, which he is writing in an effort to avert the start of a war between his patron and another landowner. Kim finds Torres in the Flyer and both are rescued by Voyager, but not before the play for peace is performed.
In this episode, when Kelis calls Torres an Eternal, he is unknowingly projecting upon her qualities that are contained within his own psyche. Bits of material from his own unconscious, his ideal of a deity and his inner feminine other. Such a strong projection leads him to creating his play, but when Torres then refuses to allow the projection to be placed upon her, his art fails him. However, when Torres temporarily allows him to project these bits of unconscious energy on her again, she is able to tell him that he has the ability to create his play within himself. And he believes her. This can be analogized to when the conscious ego projects bit of unconscious material onto another, and when the projection is willingly withdrawn, the ego can incorporate these bits of material into itself, to become stronger and make the psyche more whole.
mydailysoultrek 