''A THOUSAND YEARS OF LOVE''

The preface to a conversation -turned book- between LA WEEKLY'S editor Michael Ventura and psychologist James Hillman

''It's a strange enough process to write a book; it's even stranger to talk one. Psychotherapist James Hillman and I have talked a new book titled WE'VE HAD A HUNDRED YEARS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY AND THE WORLD'S GETTING WORSE.

It began as a a dialogue in 1990, and then -you might say we couldn't shut up. Our talks became a work- in -progress then a book. The topic we set for ourselves was how psychotherapy relates to political life and how some psychological concepts don't work as advertised - they don't liberate or empower, they shrink and deny. Our questions: What are psychotherapy's blind spots? And how can psychotherapy be revitalized?

So of course, one fine night we found ourselves talking about love- because what and how we love measure the limits of both politics and our therapies. What follows is an excerpt from that dialogue, and, as befits any serious encounter with love, the tone is somewhat desperate.''

                                                                        -Michael Ventura