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A Psychoanalysis and the Psychology of Stargate SG-1

Stargate SG-1 ran from 1997 until 2007 with 10 seasons and 214 episodes plus the original movie and subsequent movies. The show has many recurring themes in its characters around emotional regulational, trauma and themes relating to maladaptive personality, especially themes on what is now commonly called "gaslighting" and what is real. If you haven't seen the show, it's worth watching the Kurt Russell movie first, and then starting from episode 1.

All the episodes can be found at https://stargate.fandom.com/wiki/Category:SG-1_episodes

S1E14 - "Hathor"

In this episode, Jack O'Neil is seduced by Hathor via a pink mist she breaths. She's a Goa'uld queen and wants to use the seduction in order to get the men to join her cause. The women in the army base have to stop her.

This looks like a tale similar to the Greek mythology Sirens, where men are lured in on a promise - and it is on the face of it. However the Hathor actress is more sophisticated than this as she is quite child-like as a character, and appeals to the mens' need to help her. She has strong emotional outbursts as well and appears like the writers did have Borderline Personality Disorder or another Cluster B personality in mind for the show, as these characters repeatedly appear in SG1.

S2E4 - "The GameKeeper"

The GameKeeper is, on the surface, about a cult-like leader who pacifies people using virtual reality they're stuck inside. However the script and acting of the Keeper's character makes it clear that it could be a metaphor for a relationship in which one person (the Keeper) feels responsible for curating the other person's reality. This is shown at the end of the episode when they go into the garden which he's worried they'll ruin. So in psychoanalytic terms this would be The Keeper being afraid of what happens if he doesn't control the reality.

S5E3 - "Ascension"

Orlin is an ascended being, that only appears to Carter. In the episode, Carter is the first person to show him love and kindness which then leads him to to everything he can for Carter, mirroring a person's behaviour in trauma-bonded relationship (e.g. the first person to show interest in that person, so doesn't want to lose them). This behaviour we see a few times in SG-1.

S8E2 - "New Order Part 2"

The episode has many story threads running in it, one of which Major Samantha Carter wakes up in a bed and it turns out that she is in a large farmhouse in Montana. She is greeted by Pete Shanahan, her husband in this reality. She eventually doesn't believe its real and it is infact Fifth who has created what he believes is an idealised reality for them both.

He is desperate for her to love him in the episode, and curates her world. This can once again be seen through the lens of the Cluster B categories of personality disorders. In this case, it seems quite apparent he has BPD and the curated reality described in narcisistic relationships. He could just be missing the experience of love - unconditional positive regard as Carl Rogers described it. He isn't human, but a sort of Android. The theme of control of reality in a relationship appears again in SG1.

S8E3 - "Upgrades"

O'Neill, Carter, and Daniel wear an alien armband that enhance their natural abilities, but also turn sociopathic, or perhaps more ASPD-like in that they're impulsive and ignoring orders. The three transform into cold, low empathy versions of their usual characters really effectively. Compared to their usual roles it gives a great display of the difference in the two personality types.

S8E7 - "Affinity"

Teal'c is living in his own apartment and befriends his neighbor Krista. She is stuck in an abusive relationship but she feels obliged to stay with him (it hints at trauma bonded). Teal'c has to help her escape.

S1E9 - "Brief Candle"

SG-1 arrive at a beautiful planet, Argos. The planet's inhabitants, Argosians, live a kind of narcissistic hedonistic lifestyle. One of them, Kynthia, takes a strong liking to Colonel Jack O'Neill and we see another "Siren"-like figure appear in an episode, in this case she is using "love-bombing". The twist is the Argosians only live for only 100 days.

S1E9 - "Prometheus Unbound"

In this episode we're introducing to the female character, Vala Mal Doran. She's a very character, flirting with Daniel Jackson without much success. In terms of personality, she isn't emotional but is deliberately given the personality of another "Siren", perhaps the histrionic end of Cluster B (assuming it's a disorder). She is also a thief, making her character closer to the anti-social end. Or perhaps this is just pathologising and diagnosing a character that has Thomas Szasz's "problems in living".

S1E11 - "The Torment of Tantalus"

Daniel Jackson discovers that the Stargate was activated in 1945 and man went across, Ernest Littlefield. He finds Ernest Littlefield who has been isolated on the planet since 1945, and his mental health has detoriated from the isolation. He can't communicate properly and has become obsessed with ancient alien text as a copying mechanism. He is detached from reality, and so arguably psychotic and dissociating and lost his identity.

S6E2 - "Redemption, Part 2"

In Redemption, Part 2, we're provided with a charicature of a vulnerable narcissist in the form of academic Dr. Rodney McKay. He snears and demeans Carter's ideas and over-compensates with this behaviour and also grandiose behaviour.

S6E2 - "Avenger 2.0"

In this episode we meet scientist Dr. Jay Felger who creates a computer virus called Avenger. Jay's character is self-demeaning, lacking confident. The character portrayed also points heavily to having an enmeshed relationship with his mother, in the opening scenes, where he's clearly worried about his mother's approval and her being happy.

S9E12 - "Collateral Damage"

The Galarans have the technology to implant memories into people's minds, and a murder takes place with a memory being displaced. The accuracy of memories is brought into question in the episode, with quite a clear parallel with Elizabeth Loftus's experiments with memory and eye witness information, for example Loftus & Palmer (1974), and also Bartlett, 1932 (memory is reconstructed).

S10E8 - "Memento Mori"

Vala Mal Doran loses her memory, and there's a parallel in the episode with her experience and PTSD or a traumatic event, where she slowly recovers it.