phdgirlie, whilst I feel sorry for you, I feel better reading your post. I am up to London again tomorrow for another meeting and I am not looking forward to it. If I am ever a supervisor, I will never be like this because I know how it feels to feel absolutely stupid most of the time not to mention just plain discouraged.

i know how that feels.. i dont know if my sup realises how disheartening he is.. or actually enjoys making me feel totally and utterly useless

Oh god, rememember guys how I said my sup. is always too nice and positive. Well, I have just gotten back a piece of work that was FULL of corrections, and no positive words. I think I might have gotten a bit slack. This doesn't feel too good at all. Be carefull what you wish for...

In a twisted sort of way it's great to hear that other people are having the same awful experiences of supervision that I am. My relationship with my supervisor is so dysfunctional that I get a terrible sinking feeling in my stomach before I even email her - this is an improvement though, I spent my first year as an emotional wreck and left every meeting on the verge of tears. I wish now that I'd had the courage to transfer at this point. As it stands, she doesn't read any of my work but occasionally meets me to give negative feedback all the same "I haven't had a chance to read this, but going by the first paragraph I don't think this is what this chapter should be about", etc. I am now in the position where I am self-supervising and I'm not really sure whether the work is good enough or not. Does anyone else feel that they are going it alone??

absolutely pozzo. I walk away from my supervisions feeling more bewildered than ever. All my supervisor seems to do is randomly suggests books to read every so often(which I've most often already read)and butcher any work that I send him, without giving any indication of where improvements are to be made. I would imagine that most PhDers you talk to would say that they feel they're going it alone. I guess at least on this forum, we can all be alone together

Thanks eddi - it's good to hear other people are finding feedback (or lack of it) difficult. I guess we just have to struggle on - this forum is great.

I have found the lack of feedback very, very hard. It's a really sore point with me.