Appreciation …

… The Critical Eye of Janet Malcolm | Helen Andrews | First Things. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Malcolm’s father was a neurologist and psychiatrist. Naturally enough, considering the consonance of the two professions, psychoanalysis was a constant presence in Malcolm’s journalism. Psychoanalysis holds that if you are thirty minutes late to your appointment with someone, it must be because your subconscious is harboring some hostility. What better training for a journalist’s eye for the telling detail?