10 Most Important Mental Health Awareness Episodes In Star Trek
7. Whom Gods Destroy
Whom Gods Destroy is far from a shining example in the depiction of mental health issues in Star Trek. Nor is it strong enough to serve as a timely indictment of the American penal system. That, however, is rather the point. Placed within a proper context, there is just as much — if not more — to be learnt from negative or mis- representation as there is from any positive portrayals.
Star Trek is a "product representative of an era," note the authors of the scientific paper 'From Bones to Brain: 50 Years of Star Trek and Changes in the Stigmatization of Psychological Disorders' in Current Psychology (2020). Star Trek, they argue, "retraces cultural changes in the portrayal and treatment of psychological disorders".
Citing Whom Gods Destroy directly, the paper adds that, in its characterisation of "common prejudices" and "widespread anxiety regarding psychiatry," the episode is "a crucial example of the fictional representation of society's view of psychological illness during the 1960s".
By the same measure, the success of Whom Gods Destroy is also its failure. It stubbornly remains at the level of portrayal. By not subverting or deconstructing contemporary expectations around psychiatry, the episode can only ever be a counterpoint in our awareness — a useful reminder of the past and of the evolution in the treatment of mental health.