Synopsis: While an away team is sent to evacuate a group of Denobulan geologists from a planet, Dr. Phlox confronts a patient who is from a species that Denobulan society has villainized for over three hundred years.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of the concept of a cultural complex, when an entire society is wounded either by its own actions or the actions of another group upon them.
In “The Breach” the Denobulan Science Academy sends a request through Enterprise’s Denobulan Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Phlox, to request that Enterprise evacuate a group of Denobulan geologists on the planet Xantoras, who have been ordered to leave because of a change in government. An away team is sent down to the planet to accomplish this. Meanwhile, Enterprise receives a distress call from an alien vessel with a ruptured reactor. The crew is brought aboard Enterprise for medical treatment while their ship is repaired. The most seriously injured crew member, Hudak, is an Antaran, a species that has held mutual animosity toward Denobulan for over three hundred years, and he refuses a lifesaving medical procedure from Phlox. Phlox, in turn, tells Captain Jonathan Archer that his medical ethics prohibit him from treating a patient against that individual’s will. Archer tells Phlox that he will not allow Hudak to die and orders him to change the patient’s mind. The first conversation between Phlox and Hudak goes very badly. Hudak asks questions of Phlox, opening up the wounds that both species have given each other. But then Phlox discusses the situation with Sub-Commander T’Pol, and in the process, he reminds himself how he had tried to not spread the hatred of Antarans, that his elders had tried to instill in him, to his children. Phlox returns to sickbay and answers the questions that Hudak had posed to him. He tells Hudak how he tried to teach his children not to hate the Antarans. At this point, Hudak changes his mind and allows Phlox to treat him. While all this was going on, on the planet the away team was able to retrieve the Denobulan geologists, whom Hudak then agrees to take back to their home world.
In this episode, when Phlox gives voice to his feelings by speaking to T’Pol, it starts a healing process for him. When he goes back to speak with Hudak, admitting his culture’s animosity toward Antarans, yet that he earnestly is trying not to perpetuate the hatred, this also begins a healing process for Hudak. The result is that Hudak will not only allow the three Denobulan geologists on his ship, but he will bring them back to the Denobulan Science Academy. This can be compared to when any member of a society discloses a cultural wound, which is the first step to healing it. A cultural wound can be analogized to an unconscious complex in one’s psyche just on a larger scale. And admitting it exists can be the first step to healing, just as acknowledging a complex is the first step to integrating that particular bit of unconscious material into the conscious ego, to make it stronger and the psyche more whole.
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