Sam Shepard called his 1985 epic “a love ballad . . . a little legend about love.” The play intertwines the lives of two troubled families, exposing the ghosts of their pasts: insanity, alcoholism, alienation, and abuse. This new production is a humorous, haunting, and violent aria of tortured love. Jeff Janisheski directs A Lie of the Mind, presented by Columbia Stages.