Synopsis: Ensigns Boimler and Rutherford save the day by showing Ferengis a way to make more profits.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of the idea that sometimes the conscious ego needs to approach the unconscious in the way of the unconscious.
In “Mugato, Gumato” the U.S.S. Cerritos is sent to Frylon IV to investigate the appearance of a mugato. When the away team transports to the planet they discover that Ferengis are raising mugato to harvest their horns and sell them. Ensign Beckett Mariner is caught in a mugato trap and captured by the Ferengi, but she is set free when Ensign Bradward Boimler and Ensign Samanthan Rutherford show the Ferengi that there is more profit to be made in keeping the mugato alive in a nature preserve than in killing them for their horns.
In this episode, the Starfleet crew can be seen as embodying the conscious ego and the Ferengi as the unconscious. So when Boimler and Rutherford show the Ferengi how it is more profitable to keep the mugato alive than to kill them for their horns, this can be seen as appealing to the Ferengi in a way that makes sense to them, rather than using a military show of force to change their minds. This can be compared to when the ego acknowledges bits of unconscious material and then integrates them into itself so that it can approach a situation from a different perspective. This is part of what Carl (C.G.) Jung called the union of opposites, that makes the ego stronger and the psyche more whole.
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