The woman behind one of Freud’s most influential case studies, writes Gabriel Brownstein, was not the straightforward success story of legend. THE SECRET MIND OF BERTHA PAPPENHEIM: The Woman Who Invented Freud’s Talking Cure, by Gabriel Brownstein Bertha Pappenheim stopped eating and sleeping. She lost her language and ability to move. Her eyes crossed and […]
Bitter Water Opera by Nicolette Polek IN THE PENULTIMATE scene of The Red Shoes (1948), a spotlight strikes the stage. A man presents his hand to a closed door. It opens; there is nothing inside. He spins, and the spotlight spins with him. He leaps, pirouettes, and raises his arms, the spotlight following just beyond […]
I remember being a small child, doing arithmetic at the kitchen table, but not what state I was in—Delaware, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, we moved all around. I remember the face of my middle school bully, but not his name. I remember falling desperately in love with a girl in my college Shakespeare lecture, but not what […]
Photo by Andreas Strandman via Unsplash Often in illness narratives, the diagnosis marks a moment of triumph. There’s an a-ha moment and the main character rejoices, finally having a name for their symptoms. A medication or course of treatment available that might bring the patient to their former body. There is a sense of restoration, […]
Should you feel like a creep reading about transgressive family affairs on the subway?Credit…Librado Romero/The New York Times “My sister. My daughter. … She’s my sister and my daughter!” If you’ve ever seen Roman Polanski’s sun-bleached neo-noir “Chinatown,” which turns 50 this year, you can’t forget it: a defiant, tear-stained Faye Dunaway wailing the sordid […]
Photo by Noorulabdeen Ahmad on Unsplash I have always found myself building extremely romantic friendships. Long hours lost to phone calls, text marathons, letters, no-reason gifts, the sharing of meals and secrets and small, tender intimacies. For whatever reason, it has always seemed apparent that my friendships—if handled with devotion and care—will outlast my romantic […]
Credit…Rebecca Clarke “I mean that as an organizing principle,” says the U.S. poet laureate, who has edited a new anthology of nature poetry called “You Are Here,” “and also as a slight against prose.” Credit…Rebecca Clarke What books are on your night stand? My night stand doesn’t speak to me anymore. That’s because, here’s the […]
“My job as a parent isn’t over until your book gets published,” my father said, years ago. I don’t remember the circumstances of this statement—where we were, what we were doing. I want to say it had something to do with his body, maybe the deterioration of his lungs to COPD, his breathing so labored […]
Molly Brodak was a poet, baker and memoirist who died in 2020. MOLLY , by Blake Butler The first sign that “Molly” is not going to be a typical memoir arrives on Page 20. That’s when the author, Blake Butler, finds himself on his hands and knees in agony beside his wife, whose body he […]
When my Abuela died in early 2021, I couldn’t say goodbye to her in person. The day that she died, I felt her at the end of my bed. I was twisted in guilt. I was asleep, but it was a flimsy sleep, not deep. She was laughing at me. “What are you crying for? […]
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