Doc ImpossibleFeb 12, 2023

I don't regret my doctorate. I don't.

But if I had everything to do over again, I would *never* get a PhD.

It narrows your options in ways you'd never imagine. But that's not why.

The process of getting a PhD--at least, at this point in time--is inherently abusive. It's cruel. And it demands that you accept the abusiveness, the capriciousness, the lack of control over your own life and your own destiny, as both appropriate and inevitable. That you internalize the abuse and perpetrate it against yourself, without end. That service to others is everything, that you don't deserve time to yourself, that you never,ever deserve a vacation from your work, that your only human value is in whatever knowledge you have--knowledge which is constantly devalued and denigrated by others.

The PhD process is nothing short of hazing.

I love teaching at university. It is a great joy in my life. But it wasn't worth the price of admission, and I can never get off of this ride now.

Think twice before you walk this path.

Show threadJ blue

@Impossible_PhD Thank you for this post. I try to put that experience far out of my mind as possible but I still get tachycardia from email alerts.

There was just a smidgen of catharsis when the panel OK'd my introduction. The introduction to my thesis was structured around all the ways my PhD supervisor was abusive and how his ideas were completely unethical. The main body of the PhD then lept off on how to approach my topic ethically.

Feb 14, 2023 at 3:48amWeb
Show threadDoc ImpossibleFeb 14, 2023
@jblue Oh god. 🫂
Show threadJ blueFeb 14, 2023
@Impossible_PhD The school probably couldn't put up much of an argument against it because there was a paper trail. He tried to get the PhD program to force into doing a project I had extremely strong moral objections to. I have his letters and I have my responses. I would never be able to sign my name to such a project, I'd be so embarassed by association to it and the thought of it makes me want to vomit. My new supervisor agreed that my objections were valid and voided the assignment.