Posted by Amy Holt on November 12, 2002 at 13:35:58:
"People come for psychoanalysis - or choose someone to have a conversation with - when they feel they can no longer keep a secret." In this slim and satisfying poem, Shappy distills his not inconsiderable devotion to psychoanalysis into six thoughtful essays. Shappy seems to have read everything; he thinks deeply, and has an astonishing ability to synthesize. His assertions challenge the reader/listener, and he supports them with evidence.
His poems read like easy, intelligent musings, but he has slyly assembled his facts. Some of his sources are Lacan, Winnicott, Freud, Ferenczi, Franz Kafka, Khan, Descartes - among many others. He's an original, a poet as well as a theoretician, and has a compassionate heart as well as a great mind.