Synopsis: Captain Freeman sends lieutenants junior grade Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, and T’Lyn on what she perceives as a safe assignment to keep Mariner out of danger.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of Carl (C. G.) Jung’s concept of the complex, one way that unconscious material makes itself perceivable to the unconscious.
In “The Inner Fight” Captain Carol Freeman is concerned about the self-destructive actions of Lieutenant junior grade Mariner Beckett. She assigns Beckett and Lieutenants junior grade Bradward Boimler, D’Vana Tendi, T’Lyn on a routine assignment to fix a weather relay on Sherbal V. However, once they reach that destination a Klingon Bird-of-Prey destroys their shuttle and they beam down to the planet, where they encounter some of the crews from ships that have been reported missing. Mariner fights with one of them, a Klingon named Ma’ah, who was stranded after his crew mutinied. He tells Mariner that she is Starfleet but she fights like a Klingon warrior. Mariner admits to him that she is struggling. She tells him about Ensign Sito Jaxa, whom she looked up to and how her death affected her. Ma’ah tells Mariner that to honor Sito’s death she must move forward. They decide to work together. They do, but then Nicholas “Nick” Locarno kidnaps Mariner.
In this episode, when Mariner keeps putting her life in jeopardy for reasons that she cannot explain, this can be seen as an illustration of a feeling toned complex. Jung called complexes feeling-toned because when an individual is in the throes of one, the individual cannot help themselves for acting a certain way. However, Jung also viewed complexes not as necessarily negative, but as opportunities for self-knowledge. Here, when Mariner breaks down and tells Ma’ah what she is feeling and through that conversation becomes aware of why she is acting the way she is, this can be compared to when the conscious ego acknowledges and integrates bits of the complex into itself, to become stronger and the psyche more whole.
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