Synopsis: While attending a medical conference, Dr. Phlox tries to discretely get information about a rare Vulcan disease which T’Pol has been infected with.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what can happen when the Logos-driven rational conscious ego refuses to acknowledge bits of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious.
In “Stigma” Dr. Phlox examines Sub-Commander T’Pol and tells her that the Panar Syndrome that she was infected with when Enterprise encountered a group of emotion-embracing Vulcans in the episode “Fusion,” has become resistant to his remedies. Phlox is about to attend the Interspecies Medical Exchange Conference where there will be a Vulcan contingent, and he tells her this is a perfect opportunity for him to try to get some vital information on how to adjust his treatments. T’Pol is extremely hesitant for him to do so because the illness only affects a small minority of individuals on Vulcan, and their behavior is not condoned by society. Phlox proceeds anyway and T’Pol’s condition is revealed. When one of the Vulcans, Dr. Oratt, recalls T’Pol to Vulcan because of her having Panar Syndrome, T’Pol refuses to defend herself, because telling the medical officers that she was infected through an attack she feels would condone their prejudices. Archer does not agree and forces the Vulcans to give T’Pol a hearing where Archer makes the case to keep her on Enterprise. Also, at the hearing one member of the Vulcan medical contingency, Yuris, reveals that he is a member of the minority that is susceptible to Panar Syndrome, but that T’Pol is not, she contracted it through an attack. Yuris loses his post because of his revelation, but T’Pol is allowed to remain aboard Enterprise. Meanwhile, Phlox’s second wife, Feezal, comes aboard Enterprise to help Commander Charles (Trip) Tucker install a new neutron microscope. She makes sexual advances toward Tucker, and even though Phlox assures him that in his culture what she is doing is completely acceptable behavior and encourages him to experience the pleasures his wife offers him. Tucker cannot phantom it because he was not brought up that way. Phlox accuses Tucker of being too concerned with human morality.
In this episode, Tucker, and the Vulcans, other than Yuris, can both be seen as embodiments of a rational conscious ego that is not open to bits of material from the irrational unconscious. Tucker is not open to Feezal’s advances, even though on her planet her desire for Tucker is celebrated, but in a human society Tucker is offended because he was brought up differently. Meanwhile, the Vulcan contingency, other than Yuris, are so closed off to the idea of emotion, that those individuals that have the ability to mind meld, which may include sharing another’s emotions, are so stigmatized that the Vulcan government is not even really trying to find a cure for Panar Syndrome. This closed mindedness led to Tucker forgoing pleasure, while the Vulcans, perhaps more seriously, demoted Yuris and very nearly exiled him, to avoid the impression that they may have emotions themselves. This can be analogized to when the conscious ego refuses to acknowledge the unconscious’s existence and integrate bits of it into itself. The ego becomes one-sided and the psyche less whole.
mydailysoultrek 