Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation

Synopsis: Aboard a mercenary vessel, Captain Picard and Commander Riker try to foil a plot to recover a deadly ancient Vulcan weapon. This episode has a bit of an unsatisfying finish. It can be analogized to how the rational Logos-driven ego believes that it is the center of the psyche, when it is not. In… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 7, Episode 5: “Gambit, Part II”

Synopsis: After Captain Picard is presumed dead, Commander Riker investigates the murder, only to be captured by alien mercenaries who have among them the very much alive Picard. This episode gives us a glimpse of how different individuals respond to loss. It also elucidates what happens when we project the negative inner anima or animus… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 7, Episode 4: “Gambit, Part I”

Synopsis: While using a device that allows him to interface with a mechanical probe to try and save the crew aboard a vessel trapped in a planet’s atmosphere, Lt. Commander La Forge comes across an image of his mother, that is actually an alien pleading for assistance. This episode illustrates how messages received from our… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 7, Episode 3: “Interface”

Synopsis: Three ambassadors from a race having its first cultural exchanges with the Federation come aboard the Enterprise with different missions to understand humans. If the last episode illustrated the depth psychological concept of ego inflation and deflation, this episode elucidates another central idea from depth psychology, that of projection. Projection in this sense is… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 7, Episode 2: “Liaisons”

https://anchor.fm/margaret-mendenhall/episodes/My-Daily-Soul-Trek-Star-Trek-The-Next-Generation—Season-7–Episode-1-Descent–Part-II-e1plgco Synopsis: The crew of the Enterprise are confronted by an army of individualized Borgs led by Lt. Commander Data’s brother, Lore. This episode illustrates two possible effects upon the Logos-driven conscious rational ego when it comes in contact with bits of Eros-driven irrational material from the unconscious: inflation and deflation. Both are necessary to… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 7, Episode 1: “Descent, Part II”

Synopsis: The crew of the Enterprise comes across Borg individuals not attached to the collective, just as Lt. Commander Data experiences his first emotion. It is fitting that this episode be titled “Descent,” because that is what the Logos-driven rational conscious ego perceives is occurring when it comes in contact with bits of material from… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 6, Episode 26: “Descent”

Synopsis: While responding to a distress call from a Romulan warbird the Enterprise is caught in a temporal anomaly. In this episode we can see what Star Trek does so well, in that the crew of the Enterprise responds to a sudden emergent situation in a Logos-driven rational way, only to find out that this… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 6, Episode 25: “Timescape”

Synopsis: While trying to retrieve data from a science station evacuated eight years prior, Commander Riker discovers his double. In this episode we can see how the depth psychological concept of projection works in a very direct way. Projection is the way in which we are able to perceive those unwanted or suppressed parts of… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 6, Episode 24: “Second Chances”

Synopsis: Lt. Worf travels to the Klingon holy planet of Boreth in search of spiritual awakening. In this episode we can see how similar the concepts of depth psychology and the search for meaning in life align with religious belief systems and how the process of analysis is challenging and frustrating at times. In “Rightful… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 6, Episode 23: “Rightful Heir”

Synopsis: Dr. Crusher risks her career in order to solve the mystery of a murder aboard the Enterprise. In this episode we can see how the Logos-driven rational conscious ego, here symbolized by Starfleet Command, can try to suppress input from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious, here embodied in Dr. Beverly Crusher. In “Suspicions” Crusher acts… Continue reading Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 6, Episode 22: “Suspicions”