I’m not sure I’m convinced. They don’t seem to be struggling with consensus on any other matters, so that kind of implies they’re just one single consciousness rather than a gestalt of conflicting ones. I don’t think the individuals are still in there, or they’re so completely subsumed they might as well be gone.

As for their vulnerability to emotional outbursts I’m betting that whatever happened with the immune survivors has made them into transmitters but not receivers for whatever psychic frequency the collective operates on. Which is why it cannot disobey or lie to her about anything except its “biological imperatives” and cannot handle her negative emotions since it disrupts the positive emotions it’s using to keep everyone’s consciousnesses subdued.