Hi everyone, thanks for your responses, they have been very helpful. I am going to arrange a meeting with my supervisor, be more direct about what I need and then take things from there.

I was wondering how often you meet with your supervisor, particularly if you're in the humanities. I'm in year 3 of my PhD and have only one supervisor. He has always been quite aloof. In my first year I met with him about once/twice a term, and he would nearly always deflect any requests for guidance on the direction of my work. I was away for fieldwork for my entire second year so we hardly spoke then.

I have had a terrible start to my third year. Feeling very demotivated and low, I have done next to no work since October and feel adrift. I met with him towards the end of November and told him this, and he just said I should try harder and has not been in touch since. I know it's the responsibility of the student to maintain contact, and I usually do, but I have felt so low that I haven't been able to recently. I am trying to move past this and hope it's just a phase, but his lack of interest is a part of why I'm finding it difficult to get back on track.

It's not just the contact time that makes me feel neglected, but also basic things e.g. not passing on information about seminars or calls for papers that would be good for me as other supervisors do for their students. In the time that he does give me, he usually doesn't listen to what I have to say and interrupts to talk at me about his view of topics tangential to my thesis. I've had quite a few practical issues with my research and he just stares at me blankly and says he doesn't know when I call on his expertise to advise me.

I know we are supposed to be relatively independent, but I feel like my basic supervisory needs aren't being met. However, I wanted to check that I'm not overreacting by seeing what is considered 'normal' before I decide what to do.