Everytime I want to explore something they call time on it!
Jus found a theory I would really like to follow, not so much for the PhD itself but it may well have implications for the recommendations, just pitched it to them with a link to relevent articles and I have been told not to pursue it...this happens everytime. Whe I annonced my theoretical framework as being from a post modern perspective they told me I can't base my thesis on something I can't prove exists........I am getting really despondent. I know this was their proposel and I've only been brought in to do it but when I took it I was told this will be your PhD for you to persue as you see fit yet they keep guiding me to their theories and ways of working....I've even had to change my writing style as it wasnt as they wanted it.
I am soooooooo dissillusioned I feel like telling them to write their own flippin thesis!!!!
Does anyone else have these type of problems and what do I do about it?????

I'm think outda top of my head here. I haven't had such but If it is their proposal, then i think you should find out exactly what they want.

You see thats the crux of it Exactly whos PhD is it???!!!!!
They got the funding with their proposel but when I won the studentship they said that it was now my baby and as long as I followed the proposel outline I could do with it what I will...in fact he stressed that it was MY PhD...now it seems they were not as ready to let go of it as they implied but at the same time they don't state what it is they want exactly.
I wish they would either tell me what it is they want and I will do that OR let me follow my own path and guide me!!!!
I hate confrontation and I know this is where it is headed.

It is your PhD, and you will be the one who has to defend it on your own in the viva. I imagine that a topic can be investigated using any kind of epistemological position - they would all probably illuminate different things, and if you can see good reasons for the post-structuralist approach, then it cant be 'wrong'. i actually don't understand their argument about not being able to prove its existence...isn't that the point?
Are they post-structuralists themselves? They may be resistant because they're not 'au fait' with post-strutural methods and debates, so would rather go with what they know. But that should be their problem to deal with and accommodate, not yours.

Hmm. Does sound like you and your supervisors need to talk – but it doesn’t have to be a confrontation unless one or other party makes it. All you are really looking for is clarification. At this stage anyway, if you are not seeing eye to eye the arguments may come later.
Have to say I disagree with Zelda. I am someone who followed their nose and ended up using a very different approach from the one my supervisor takes. All through I have been thinking my supervisor didn’t have time to comment or offer criticisms or even suggestions of things I could read or literature I might have missed. Now I realise it’s because the sup just doesn’t know anything about the route I chose to take. And now I am writing up I realise I really do need someone who is familiar with the approach to provide sound criticism. So I would suggest caution over taking an approach that isn’t something your sup knows about. They ain’t going to learn it just for you!

Cheers guys, really had a bad one yesterday, (topped off by a burst pipe and flooded bathroom/kitchen last night).
Zelda My hubby is with you and says I need to be more assertive. I have tried to look at other approached but everything I read makes perfect sense when framed within a post-mod post-struc perspective...I guess when they read the same thing it fits into their epistomolgy too...but thats the point I guess and like you said as long as I can defend it.

alibi hubby also commented it may be an understanding issue and that they just don't understand or have the background (could your sup. not refer you to someone in your field for more support?) I think maybe clarification is a better word than confrontation. I have just drafted out my lasted understanding of my research based on my most recent reading so will present that to them so they can feedback on it at next weeks session (which I am dreading as I know the work they set and I have done is crap as i've been distracted by reading).
I really wish I'd taken the job not the PhD!!!