Slow Fuse of the Possible: A Memoir of Poetry and Psychoanalysis 

January 1st, 2022

Slow Fuse of the Possible: A Memoir of Poetry and Psychoanalysis is a poet’s narrative of a troubled psychoanalysis, and a meditation on the powers of language, for good and ill. Throughout, the story is filtered through the mind of Emily Dickinson, whose poetry Daniels uses as a fulcrum for the interpretation of her own experience. The book is saturated with Dickinson’s verse, and Dickinson is an increasingly haunting presence as crises emerge and the author unravels. 

“A searching, scorching account of psyche, psychoanalysis, and life. Through Kate Daniels we appreciate the gift of poetic creation in the midst of destructive moments.”

Michael Eigen, psychoanalyst, author of The Challenge of Being Human, Flames from the Unconscious, The Psychotic Core, Contact with the Depths, et al

“Kate Daniels has transformed a painfully failed analysis into an unlikely, original, and successful book, a compellingly personal and brave study of poetry and psychoanalysis, her interrelated passions, which she treats with a mixture of wry poignance and deep devotion. Slow Fuse is a book of burning soulfulness.”

Edward Hirsch, poet and author of 100 Poems to Break Your Heart