We met her in Dagger Of The Mind. She originally came to the Tanatalus hospital colony for "rehabilitation", and her "treatment" was so "successful" that she was kept on by Dr. Adams to be a "therapist". Dr. Adams says she's a very good therapist (whatever that means to a psycho bad guy like him).
"I love my work", she says to Captain Kirk.
Dr. Helen Noel and Captain Kirk are favorably impressed by her. She is attractive, well-spoken, and apparently intelligent.
(...but she comes across as emotionally flat. No doubt Adam's evil device was used to "rehabilitate" her.)
Kirk questions her about her history:
"Before you came here..."
Lethe: "I was another person: malignant, hateful."
Kirk: "May I ask what crime you committed?"
Lethe: "Does it matter? That person no longer exists."
Dr. Adams (to Kirk): "A part of our 'cure', if you will, Captain, is to bury the past. Why should a person go on living with unbearable memories... (etc.)"
She's symbolically named after the river "Forgetfulness" of Greek mythology. The Lethe river is one of the rivers that flow through the realm of Hades. Called the River of Oblivion, the shades of the dead had to drink from this river to forget about their past lives on earth.
So, basically, Lethe was "cured" by (among other things) having her memories erased. Maybe Dr. Noel and Captain Kirk don't see anything wrong with that, but to us in the audience it's OK to wonder if that is actually good and wise.
It's OK for us to also wonder if it's wise to use a homocidal maniac with erased memories and a falsely created personality as a full-blown "therapist"! To psycho Adams that of course makes perfect sense, but us... we should wonder!
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