Synopsis: Captain Pike, Nurse Chapel, Lt. Noonien-Singh, and Ensign Uhura are medically transformed into Vulcans to carry out an away team mission, but then decide that they do not want to change back into being human.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of what Carl (C. G.) Jung described as inflation and deflation—when the conscious ego identifies too long or to closely with an archetypal power, and the resulting feeling of smallness that comes when that connection dissipates.
In “Four-and-a-Half Vulcans” the U.S.S. Enterprise receives a message from the Vulcan High Council asking for help to restore a nuclear-based energy system powering Tezaar, which they provided to the planet before the Prime Directive was established. Because the Tezaarians have advanced scanning abilities, the away team needs to become Vulcan to avoid breaking the Prime Directive. Nurse Christine Chapel reformulates the Kherkovian serum that restored Lt. Spock to his original self, to make Captain Christopher Pike, Lt. La’An Noonien-Singh, Ensign Nyota Uhura, and herself Vulcan. The serum has no effect on Commander Pelia, a Lanthanite, so the half-Vulcan Spock joins the away team.The energy system is quickly repaired, although Spock noted that the other members of the away team constantly reminded him that he was the least Vulcan among them.Back on the Enterprise, Lt. James Kirk comes aboard and Lt. Montgomery (Scotty) Scott greets him. Pike (now Vulcan) tells the senior staff that Noonien-Singh (now Vulcan), Uhura (now Vulcan), Chapel (now Vulcan), and he intend to stay Vulcan. Spock understands the decision, explaining that any Vulcan would believe being Vulcan as opposed to human would be a logical choice. Dr. Joseph M’Benga says that in order to convince them to resume human form they need to connect with their consciousnesses—what Vulcan’s call their katras. Meanwhile, Uhura (now Vulcan) performs a mind meld on Umberto (Beto) Ortegas and turned him into a vegetarian with Vulcan predilections. Chapel (now Vulcan) breaks up with Dr. Roger Korby and all her friends. Noonien-Singh (now Vulcan) tells Kirk and Scotty that the ship doesn’t have enough weapons. Commander Una Chin-Riley (Number One) knows someone who can help return the away team to their original selves, a Vulcan named Doug. Once again in their original bodies, the away team realizes that they need to make apologies to a lot of people for the action they took while they were Vulcan.
In this episode, when Pike, Chapel, Noonien-Singh, and Uhura decided that they wanted to remain Vulcan, which they perceived as a superior species, this can be compared to when an individual identifies too closely or for too long with what Jung called the power of an unconscious archetype. Conversely, when they returned to human form, the disconnection they felt can be analogized to what Jung described as deflation. Jung believed that the ongoing progression between the highs of inflation and lows of deflation were necessary in his understanding of Individuation—“the process by which a person becomes a psychological ‘in-dividual,’ that is, a separate, indivisible unity or ‘whole’” (1939/1969, p. 275 [CW 9i, para. 490]. Inflation is required to give an individual the impetus to begin or continue the process, and deflation is a needed reminder to an individual that they are human and not god-like or perfect. The movement between these two opposite ways of being is an example of how Jung perceived individuation as an integration of all parts of a person’s psyche, as opposed to the quest for perfection of the mind and spirit.
Reference:
Jung, C. G. (1969). Conscious, unconscious, and individuation (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). In H. Read et al. (Eds.), The collected works of C. G. Jung: Vol. 9 pt. 1. Archetypes and the collective unconscious (2nd ed., pp. 275-289). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1939) https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400850969.275
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