We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy--And the World's Getting Worse

by James Hillman

Book Overview

This furious, trenchant, and audacious series of interrelated dialogues and letters takes a searing look at not only the legacy of psychotherapy, but also practically every aspect of contemporary living--from sexuality to politics, media, the environment, and life in the city. James Hillman--controversial renegade Jungian psychologist, the man Robert Bly has called "the most lively and original psychologist we've had in America since William James"--joins...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0062506617
• ISBN13: 9780062506610
• Release Date: May 1993
• Publisher: HarperOne
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.7" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

WOW!!!

THIS IS QUITE HONESTLY THE BEST BOOK I HAVE EVER READ! The dialogue between Hillman and Ventura was unbelievable, and to analyze what there are getting at kept my brain churning! Hillman makes great points and is very convincing with his form of psychology! I reccomend you read this book immediately!!!

Much more than psychotherapy

This is unquestionably one of the best books I've ever read-and it is much more than a critique of the legacy of psycotherapy. Hillman and Ventura improvise their way through a series of dialogues, rants, ruminations that question and turn upside down many of the most dearly beloved tenets of our current culture-the importance we attach to "personal growth" being just one example. The book is very opinionated (thank goodness), gutsy and provocative. It's also very deep-but not in a self conscious or pretentious manner-it just helps to reveal the depth that's there in the everyday world. The best thing about it is that after you've read it you'll want to live your life with the same critical intensity. Really great book.

We?ve Had 100 Years of Psychotherapy & we're still weird?

In this intense, incisive & barefaced series of dialogues & letters between two spirited people, we get searing insights into the legacy of psychotherapy & just about every aspect of contemporary life. After we found this book we finagled several of our friends into reading it. Our experience of what James Hillman & Michael Ventura spoke & wrote changed our minds & the way we went about living & loving. Fascinating!

outstanding poke at traditional psychotherapy....

....and its habit of cloistering itself in the consulting room. Hillman and Ventura make their rambling, imaginative, caustic, and wonderfully spontaneous case for the inefficiency of a psychology establishment that pretends to change the world one person at a time...in effect robbing them of the very symptoms that might prompt some effective action, political and otherwise. Be sure to look for Hillman's wonderful offhand joke about why camels spit.

An unflinching critique of modern psychotherapy

In this stream-of-conciousness assay of modern psychotherapy, James Hillman and Michael Ventura pull no punches in their thoughful and provacative conversations and letters. The interplay of Ventura's relentless questioning and Hillman's ascerbic and, at times, seemingly heretical replies strip the clothes off the emperor of modern psychotherapy. The synergy created in the authors' conversations and exchange of letters in worth the price of admission alone. This book is essential reading for those willing to question the value and values of modern psychotherapy and its grip and the psyche of Western culture.