Synopsis: The U.S.S. Cerritos is tasked with providing transportation of three Betazoids to Risa.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what Carl (C. G.) Jung termed projection—when an individual projects their own unconscious material onto another.
In “Empathological Fallacies,” the U.S.S. Cerritos is providing transportation of three Betazoids—Katrot, Dolorex, and Cathiw, to Risa. Captain Carol Freeman throws a reception for them and the crew begins to act oddly. Lt. T’Lyn believes that the Betazoids may have Zanthi fever. Freeman brings the Betazoids to sick bay, but they are completely healthy. They break out of sick bay, capture Freeman, and tell her that they are with Betazoid Intelligence and are going to take the Cerritos into the Neutral Zone to follow up on a lead on the small ship that has been destroying vessels. Meanwhile, T’Lyn tells Lt. Beckett Mariner that she wants to be transferred. She believes that she is not Vulcan enough and her assignment on the Cerritos was punishment for her going with her instincts in her last posting. It turns out that T’Lyn’s feelings are so strong that they are what has been affecting the entire crew. T’Lyn’s sharing her pain with Mariner calmed her, and the crew is able to take control of the ship back from the Betazoids.
In this episode, when T’Lyn told Freeman that the odd behavior of the crew might be related to the emotions of the Betazoids, this can be compared to when the conscious ego projects bits of unconscious psychic contents onto another. This act of projection is one way that the ego is alerted to the presence of a complex, and the unconscious material contained in it. Here, T’Lyn admitted that she had unresolved suppressed feelings, and it turns out that these, not the Betazoids, were what was affecting the crew. But when she admitted this, she became calmer and the crew was also restored to their normal selves. This can be analogized to when the ego stops projecting unconscious material onto another, and instead acknowledges and integrates that material into itself, it becomes stronger and the psyche more whole. This also allows the ego to see the other individual that it had previously been projecting onto for who they really are.
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