  The temperature dependence of the complex optical properties of the
three-dimensional topological insulator Bi2Te2Se is reported for light
polarized in the a-b planes at ambient pressure, as well as the effects of
pressure at room temperature. This material displays a semiconducting character
with a bulk optical gap of 300 meV at 295 K. In addition to the two expected
infrared-active vibrations observed in the planes, there is additional fine
structure that is attributed to either the removal of degeneracy or the
activation of Raman modes due to disorder. A strong impurity band located at
200 cm^{-1} is also observed. At and just above the optical gap, several
interband absorptions are found to show a strong temperature and pressure
dependence. As the temperature is lowered these features increase in strength
and harden. The application of pressure leads to a very abrupt closing of the
gap above 8 GPa, and strongly modifies the interband absorptions in the
mid-infrared spectral range. While ab initio calculations fail to predict the
collapse of the gap, they do successfully describe the size of the band gap at
ambient pressure, and the magnitude and shape of the optical conductivity.
