Catching the Wave

Christopher Bollas speaks to Thomas Meaney

In this episode of the Granta podcast, editor Thomas Meaney speaks with Christopher Bollas, one of the most widely read and influential psychoanalytic writers working today. A wide-ranging interview about his life and work appears in Granta 174: Therapy.

In this further conversation, Bollas reflects on the relationship between psychoanalysis and literature, the significance of daydreams, whether analysis can speak to the great crises of our time, and (betraying his California upbringing) its unexpected affinities.

‘I used to be a surfer. You have to be really patient waiting for the right waves to come along. You may be out there for hours before anything happens. And then it comes and it’s wonderful. In sessions, you may wait for days or weeks and there’s nothing of any meaning so far as you know taking place. Both you and the patient learn to be patient.’

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