Growing Up in the House of Freud

Plus: a news outlet that could help Trump; Markéta Vondroušová flips the script at Wimbledon; and Agnès Varda’s vision of French village life. View in browser | Update your preferences Saturday, July 15, 2023 In today’s newsletter, The Weekend Essay, and then: • A Spanish-language news outlet that could help Donald Trump • Markéta Vondroušová flips the script at Wimbledon • Agnès Varda’s vision of French village life Growing Up in the House of Freud My psychoanalyst father wanted to prove the existence of the unconscious in the lab—and at home. By Gillian Silverman Photograph by Jessica Pettway for The New Yorker / Source photographs from Ullstein Bild / Getty; courtesy the author One morning in my early adolescence, my father woke me up for school, and I told him a terrifying dream I’d had about a bear. I focussed on the overwhelming sensory dimensions of the dream, the way the bear had appeared colossal yet lifelike. “It was really hairy,” I kept repeating, “and it smelled bad.” My father, a psychologist, listened carefully and then gently suggested that the dream might reflect anxiety about my changing pubescent body. “Especially,” he added, “in its bare form.” He lingered on the homonym until I grasped his meaning, my face turning red. “I’m not sure it was actually a bear,” I said quickly. “It was maybe more like a lion.” My father raised his eyebrows and smiled before leaving my room. Growing up in Manhattan in the nineteen-seventies and eighties, I was used to having my dreams interpreted by my parents, who were both Freudian psychoanalysts. They had each been through lengthy analyses themselves (my mother for five years, my father for more than twenty), and they encouraged my three siblings and me to relay our anxieties through Freudian methods, sometimes pulling out a set of Rorschach cards if they thought one of us seemed particularly troubled. They saw patients in our Upper West Side apartment, a portion of which was dedicated to their consultation space. In addition to his clinical work, my father was a researcher; his primary mission was to prove, empirically, the existence of the Freudian unconscious. Keep reading From the News Desk Daily Comment Can a New Spanish-Language Media Group Help Donald Trump? Americano Media hopes to reach a nationwide conservative audience. By Stephania Taladrid Q. & A. The Evolving Free-Speech Battle Between Social Media and the Government A recent court ruling curtails the federal bureaucracy’s ability to communicate with Internet platforms. What’s at stake when free speech harms the public? By Isaac Chotiner The Sporting Scene Markéta Vondroušová Flips the Script at Wimbledon Consistent in her game and steady in her victory, against Ons Jabeur, Vondroušová was never meant to be a footnote in someone else’s storybook ending. By Louisa Thomas Books We Recommend This Week Reviews of notable new fiction and nonfiction. The Lost Sons of Omaha, by Joe Sexton (Scribner). This anatomy of a killing in 2020, at a Black Lives Matter protest, tries to recover the essences of two men involved, who were “reduced to grotesques” in the distorting landscape of social media. During a struggle, James Scurlock was shot and killed by Jake Gardner, who died by suicide a few months later. Sexton marshals a remarkable volume of investigative material to disentangle fact from fiction, even though he fears that, in this moment, we may find it hard to see the genuine tragedy. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. Natural Light, by Julian Bell (Thames & Hudson). The artist Adam Elsheimer, who was born in Frankfurt in 1578 and died in Rome at the age of thirty-two, left only a small corpus of paintings, all but one executed in oil on copper, and most of them diminutive. Yet his expertise was revered, and Elsheimer’s reputation has endured. This study does discerning justice to his achievement. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. A History of Burning, by Janika Oza (Grand Central). The inciting incident of this epic début novel—spanning four generations, five countries, and nine voices—comes in 1898, when Pirbhai, a thirteen-year-old Gujarati boy, is tricked into indentured servitude and becomes one of many Indians laboring on the East African Railway, in British-ruled Kenya. Pirbhai’s descendants must navigate a complex social and racial hierarchy. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. The Book of Eve, by Carmen Boullosa, translated from the Spanish by Samantha Schnee (Deep Vellum). After a prologue, in which a nun denounces what follows as having been written “to please the Devil,” this novel embarks on a sensuous retelling of the Book of Genesis from Eve’s perspective. According to Eve, Eden “wasn’t desirable, desire didn’t exist there”; “there was no serpent”; and Cain’s offering was “light and joyful” while Abel’s was “unbreathable smoke.” Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. The best books of 2023 so far What are you reading this week? Reply to let us know. Culture Dept. Photo Booth Agnès Varda’s Storyboard of French Village Life A new exhibition showcases the filmmaker’s startlingly original form of incidental portraiture. By Richard Brody Tables for Two Bathing Teddy Bears and Other Charming Gimmicks, at Mabu Cafe A Hong Kong-style diner offers mid-century Western cuisine modified for a Cantonese palate, with zany results. By Hannah Goldfield Fun & Games Dept. Name Drop Play the Quiz Can you guess the notable person in six clues or fewer? By Will Nediger Daily Shouts Top Features of Meta’s Threads App When you post a European-vacation photo, you must disclose how you were able to afford the trip. By Eli Coyote Mandel Thanks for reading. Let us know your thoughts about today’s edition. Plus, browse more newsletters and invite a friend to sign up for The Daily. You’re receiving this e-mail because you signed up for The Daily from The New Yorker. Manage your preferences | View our Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2023. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.