Synopsis: The U.S.S. Discovery and her crew find themselves in a mirror universe.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what Carl (C.G.) Jung would call a complex, when the conscious ego acknowledges and integrates bits of unconscious material that have been brough to its attention.
In “Despite Yourself”Captain Gabriel Lorca and the Discovery crew find themselves in a mirror universe, and realize that because of this they were unable to provide Starfleet Command with the information that they gleaned about the Klingon cloaking device. Lt. Paul Stamets is neurologically unsound and unable to take Discovery back to its own universe, and Lorca relieves Dr. Hugh Culber from caring for Stamets because he does not believe that he is objective enough. Meanwhile, Lt. Ash Tyler experiences flashbacks of operations performed on him and goes to see the Klingon prisoner, L’Rell in the brig. She tries to reveal the truth to him. Tyler then speaks with Specialist Michael Burnham, who discovers that Discovery is indeed in a mirror universe that is ruled by the Terran Empire, which is the antithesis of everything that Starfleet holds dear. In this universe, all species that are not human are considered rebels, and the Terrans hold a deep hatred of those that are “other.” Also, in this universe Cadet Sylvia Tilly is captain of Discovery and Burnham is captain of the Shenzhou. Culbert tells Tyler that the Klingons changed him and Tyler kills Culber before heading over to the Shenzhou with Burnham and Lorca, to locate information that they believe will tell them how to return to their own universe.
In this episode, what Tyler is experiencing when he is recalling what he went through, as well as his response to L’Rell’s Klingon words, can be analogized to when bits of unconscious material come to the awareness of the conscious ego through a complex. A complex in the Jungian sense being an opportunity to gain self-knowledge. Here, Tyler is at the stage of acknowledging that there is something that he feels that he cannot control. When one’s ego is gripped by something from one’s unconscious that it cannot control, that is when it is experiencing a complex, which Jung described as being feeling toned. If after a complex is acknowledged, the bits of unconscious material are integrated into the conscious ego, then the ego becomes stronger and the psyche more whole. But in this episode Tyler is not there yet.
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