This episode can be seen as an illustration of how sometimes the Logos-driven rational conscious ego can be healed by acknowledging bits of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious.
“Imperfection” begins with three of the four young former Borg drones, Rebi, Azan, and Mezoti, leaving Voyager to live on the Wysanti homeworld. Only Icheb remains. After their departure, a serious malfunction in Seven of Nine’s cortical node is identified after she loses consciousness. The part cannot be repaired and must be replaced. Captain Kathryn Janeway, Lt. Commander Tuvok, and Lt. Tom Paris take the Delta Flyer to a Borg debris field to locate another cortical node in the wreckage, but the node they recover has been inactive too long to become operational. Icheb comes up with a plan to donate his cortical node to Seven, convincing The Doctor that he will be able to live without it. Seven does not want to endanger Icheb’s life and refuses the donation. Icheb then deactivates his node himself, forcing the issue. Icheb’s node is placed in Seven and both Seven and Icheb recover.
In this episode, when Seven, who has always been completely independent and in control faces a life-threatening malfunction she becomes angry and frustrated. Her self-reliance is now gone. This can be compared to when the conscious ego faces the fact that there is something more in the psyche, something that it has no control over. When Seven, who has never willingly accepted assistance from anyone aboard Voyager is forced to do so, this can be analogized to when the ego has no choice but to acknowledge and integrate bits of material from the unconscious. And while this is far outside the ego’s comfort zone, when those bits of material are assimilated into it, it becomes stronger and the psyche more whole.
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