Viva Lewes Issue #114 March 2016

Photo bny Emma Chaplin
my lewes: Michael Richards
Are you local? I was born in the Cotswolds, and
after studying Physics for six years at Oxford, I
came to teach and research at the University of
Sussex in 1964. I lived in Kingston with my first
wife Sue and we brought up our two sons there.
Tell us about your second career. My marriage
broke down in the 1970s and I came to live in
Lewes and married Janet, with whom I’d helped
start New Sussex Opera. In 1988 I started a sixyear
training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and
practiced in Lewes for 20 years. Meanwhile, Janet
was running a residential care home, and that
helped fund my six-year gap.
What prompted you to take this path? I think
it was partly reflecting on the failure of my first
marriage. But also, I knew I had taken up physics
because I thought it was safer in that you knew
when you’d got it right. As I became older I was
increasingly attracted to areas where you don’t
have that security. But I feel lucky to have had two
complementary careers.
What has your work taught you about human
nature? That reflecting on our thoughts and actions
enables us to grow. Socrates put it more
harshly: “the unexamined life is not worth living”.
This doesn’t stop us making mistakes but it does
enable us to learn from them.
Lewes has a lot of counsellors and psychotherapists.
Why do you think this is? I’ll make
two guesses. The first is that Lewes attracts reflective
people who are more likely to seek help in
examining their life. A more cynical thought is
that therapists are like antique dealers: they make
work for each other.
Whom do you admire professionally? Neville
Symington writes eloquently on psychoanalysis
and religion, and as a Christian and ex-psychoanalyst,
I believe passionately that these two can
be integrated. But I don’t spend all my time in a
monk’s cell or an ivory tower. Life without music,
sport, bridge, gardening and being with friends
and family wouldn’t be worth living.
What’s changed about Lewes over the years?
I’m not against DFLs, but they have changed the
town. In the 1960s all classes were well represented
and had a voice. Now the chattering class
dominates.
What do you like about Lewes? Harveys, twittens,
Lewes Patisserie, and the Southdown Club
where I play tennis every week.
What’s your favourite view? The castle from St
Michael’s churchyard.
How would you spend a perfect Sunday?
Church at St Michael’s in the morning. Lunch at
the Cock or the Jolly Sportsman with too much
wine, then recovering by a fire in the afternoon.
Watching telly in the evening. I enjoyed War and
Peace, but even after reading it twice, I still kept
forgetting who everyone is and how they’re related
to each other. Interview by Emma Chaplin
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