Synopsis: Lt. Barclay, in the Alpha Quadrant, tries to send a hologram message to Voyager in the Delta Quadrant.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of how difficult communication can sometimes be between the Logos-driven rational conscious ego and the Eros-driven irrational unconscious.
In “Inside Man” as part of the Pathfinder Project, Lt. Reginald Barclay tries to send a hologram message of himself in the monthly data streams that Voyager receives in the Delta Quadrant. Unbeknownst to Barclay or the crew of Voyager, Barclay’s hologram program has been intercepted by a Ferengi vessel. The Ferengi alter Barclay’s program so that it sends a message to Voyager’s crew about a dangerous plan that if successful, would get Voyager home in three days instead of several more decades. The plan is a ruse to bring Seven of Nine’s corpse to them so that they can harvest her nanoprobes and sell them for a profit. In the Alpha Quadrant, Barclay becomes aware that someone has intercepted the transmission of his hologram message. Barclay is able to foil the Ferengi plan, but on Voyager, no one knows what went wrong.
In this episode, when Barclay is unaware that his transmission was received, but in an altered form, this can be compared to how the conscious ego has difficulty interpreting information from the unconscious. When he tries to ascertain what happened to his transmission, this can be analogized to how the ego will try to rationally understand bits of irrational material from the unconscious. Barclay has a hunch which leads him to figure out the Ferengi plan and stop it, but this information does not reach Voyager’s crew in the Delta Quadrant, and Barclay also has no information about what Voyager’s crew knows or the actions they have taken. This is illustrative of the concept that the conscious ego cannot know what is in the unconscious, except by bits of information that come into its awareness. Barclay paying attention to his hunch can be compared to when the ego acknowledges and integrates these bits of material into itself, making the ego stronger and the psyche more whole.
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