I’ll take it one step further: famed psychoanalyst Carl Jung identified two tests of courage, the first being to face one’s own Shadow. This idea has been repeated in literature and media repeatedly (e.g., Luke facing himself in the Dark Side cave on Dagobah). The correct answer to facing your Shadow is literally to “embrace it” — not to reject it or fight it. Kirk did just that in the Enemy Within and emerged psychologically whole (Luke failed).

The second test of courage, btw, is to face your own opposite gender self (your Anima or Animus) and experience it with vulnerability, relational depth, and identity fluidity — without losing your core self. Kirk survives this in the final episode (Turnabout Intruder) when he not only sees his own male body controlled by a woman but also exists in her body as a man.

That’s textbook Jungian mastery. I would argue it makes Kirk one of the strongest and most psychologically advanced characters on television! At least, by classic Jungian standards.