Tag: Star Trek

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Mythologium 2023 welcomes Dr. Margaret Mendenhall

Dr. Mendenhall’s presentation is called “Mr. Spock from Star Trek: A Popular Culture Icon as Symbol for the Importance of Accepting the Eros Within”

Sometimes wisdom from the heart can come from aliens. Specifically, I believe that the character Mr. Spock from Star Trek can be seen as a symbol of the importance of the integration of material from the Eros-driven unconscious, the heart if you will, into the Logos-driven conscious rational ego. When we first meet him in Star Trek: The Original Series, Spock is introduced as the half-Vulcan science officer. Vulcans are a race that long ago decided to forgo emotions entirely in order to save their species, and Spock tries to suppress all emotions from his troubling half-human self. Yet, in his last appearance in Star Trek: The Next Generation, we see an older and wiser Spock who has learned the importance of integrating emotions into his persona, and not only on a personal basis. This paper will argue that the appeal of Mr. Spock and the Star Trek television series and films is one way to spread the idea that emotions of the heart are as important as logic.

About Dr. Mendenhall

Margaret Mendenhall, PhD resides in Long Beach, California and is a graduate of Pacifica Graduate Institute’s Mythological Studies Program. Her blog, My Daily Soul Trek, analyzes Star Trek episodes and films chronologically from a depth psychological perspective (https://mydailysoultrek.com/). Additionally, she has written, performed, and produced two myth-based one-woman shows, and produced and hosted the public access television series Myth Is All Around Us. Margaret is currently at work on her second dissertation which explores how the individuation process is illustrated by Star Trek.

2023 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2022 welcomes Margaret Ann Mendenhall, PhD

Maggie’s talk is called “The Inner Light”: The Alienation and Re-Membering of soma in Star Trek: The Next Generation

This paper will discuss the idea of soma, the appeal of Star Trek, and how in both the television series and films, soma has been alienated — designated to be illustrated in non-human characters. It will then use the episode from Star Trek: The Next Generation, “The Inner Light,” to examine how soma has been dismembered from the ideals of Starfleet, but how it can also be re-membered. In this episode, Captain Jean-Luc Picard is sent to live out a lifetime in a now extinct culture that died when it became too hot for life to exist. That culture’s idea to preserve its existence was to send a probe into space in order to find a teacher to tell others about their civilization. Reflecting that sentiment, this paper will discuss the importance of myth and depth psychology – including soma, and how Star Trek reflects our culture in all its imperfections.

About Maggie

Margaret (Maggie) Mendenhall, PhD, currently resides in Long Beach, California and is a graduate of Pacifica Graduate Institute’s Mythological Studies program. She is also currently a student in Pacifica’s Depth Psychology program, specializing in Jungian and Archetypal Studies. Margaret has presented papers on Star Trek-related topics at various conferences, including past Mythologiums; the Science Fictions, Popular Culture Academic Conference; the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology (ASWM); and Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (PCA), for which she also serves as Area Chair for Psychology and Popular Culture. She writes a blog, My Daily Soul Trek, analyzing each Star Trek episode and film from the beginning in chronological order through a depth psychological perspective. She has written, performed, and produced two myth-based one-woman shows: Dancing to the Edge of a Cliff: A Mythical Journey Toward Wholeness, and Soul Trek: My Sci-Fi Journey Toward Wholeness, and produced and hosted the public access television series Myth Is All Around Us.

2022 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2021 welcomes Dr. Margaret (Maggie) Mendenhall

Maggie’s talk is called “Healing Science Fiction: Hillman’s Revisioned Psychology as seen through the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode ‘Darmok'”

Carl G. Jung uses myth to expand upon his depth psychological teachings about how to heal one’s psyche, or soul, by becoming more whole through individuation, an ongoing process of acknowledging, accepting, and integrating different aspects of our unconscious with our conscious ego. James Hillman expands upon Jung’s use of myth by introducing four moves he believes one’s psyche goes through to heal itself, in his concept of Re-Visioning Psychology: personifying, pathologizing, psychologizing, and dehumanizing or soul-making. This presentation will use the episode “Darmok” from Star Trek: The Next Generation to illustrate Hillman’s thesis. In this episode, Captain Jean-Luc Picard is stranded on a planet with the captain of an alien ship–from a race that communicates only through metaphor and uses each of Hillman’s four moves in order to save his own life and that of the crew of the Enterprise.

About Maggie

Margaret (Maggie) Mendenhall, PhD, currently resides in Long Beach, California and is a graduate of Pacifica Graduate Institute’s Mythological Studies Program. She is also currently a student in Pacifica’s Depth Psychology Program, specializing in Jungian and Archetypal Studies. Margaret has presented papers on Star Trek related topics at various conferences, including last year’s Mythologium, the Science Fictions, Popular Culture Academic Conference, the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology, Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association, Mythgard Institute and the American Academy of Religion, Western Regional Conference. She writes a blog, My Daily Soul Trek analyzing each Star Trek episode and film from the beginning in chronological order through a depth psychological perspective. As an edutainer, she has written, performed and produced two myth based one-woman shows: Dancing to the Edge of a Cliff: A Mythical Journey Toward Wholeness and Soul Trek: My Sci-Fi Journey Toward Wholeness, and produced and hosted the public access television series Myth Is All Around Us. Margaret has also been published in legal journals and Pacifica’s Mythological Studies Journal (online) and the Between literary review.

2021 Mythologium program
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Mythologium 2020 welcomes Dr. Margaret Mendenhall

Margaret’s talk is called, “‘The Perfect Mate’: The Embodiment of Anima and Animus Projection in Star Trek: The Next Generation“

Using Jungian ideas to explore the various Star Trek films and television series, a futuristic interpretation of the American myth, is a way to make Jung’s teachings more accessible to the world at large. This paper looks at how the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Perfect Mate” — in which the beautiful female alien Kamala comes aboard the Enterprise commanded by Captain Jean Luc Picard — elucidates Jung’s concept of anima and animus projection in popular culture.

Highlighting the filmmaker’s use of mirrors throughout the episode to frame the interaction of Kamala and Picard, this paper will propose that this reflects Jung’s theory of the projection of the anima and animus onto our own perfect mate. I will discuss both Jung’s writings, some of which are problematic in his portrayal of “the feminine,” as well as work by Jungian and post-Jungian scholars in attempts to soften or reframe his ideas to address this. I will also touch on the patriarchal nature of the underlying narrative of the utopian future represented by Star Trek and how it projects the androcentricity of the American culture into the future.

About Margaret

Margaret (Maggie) Mendenhall, JD, PhD, currently resides in Long Beach, California, and is a graduate of Pacifica Graduate Institute’s Mythological Studies program. Her dissertation examined the rise of female rescue characters in German-language opera from the perspective of Eurydice. She is also currently a student in Pacifica’s Depth Psychology Program, Specializing in Jungian and Archetypal Studies. Margaret has presented papers on Star Trek-related topics at various conferences, including the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology, Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association, Mythgard Institute, and the American Academy of Religion, Western Regional Conference. As an edutainer, she has written, performed and produced two myth-based one-woman shows: Dancing to the Edge of a Cliff: A Mythical Journey Toward Wholeness and Soul Trek: My Sci-Fi Journey Toward Wholeness, and has just begun research on a potential one-woman show based on the life of Emma Jung. Margaret produced and hosted the public access television series Myth Is All Around Us and has been published in legal journals and Pacifica’s Mythological Studies Journal (online) and Between Literary Review.

2020 Mythologium program