DH writes:
>I read once in some reputable source that the leading presenting
>complaint to NYC shrinks is inability to finish a dissertation.
JG replies:
A good many Ph.D. theses don't get done because the cost-benefit ratio seems skewed to those who rightfully wonder about their job prospects relative to the grueling nature of the writing process and the sometimes impossible task of having to please a three-headed committee. Dissertation coaches often try to persuade those who stall out for these reasons that finishing the thesis is both its own reward (i.e. brings a sense of accomplishment) and cultivates faculties applicable to fields other than academia proper (e.g. budgeting time, organizing a messy array of thoughts, etc.). What I've discovered though is that in the very journey of completing the project one takes on ritualized bad habits that one never sheds no matter what one does next in life. So in that sense it is ironically the "successful completion" of the Ph.D. thesis that engenders congenital derangement.
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