There are only few weeks before VIVA and i am thinking to drop out.
I simply don't want to give the pleasure to my supervisor to through me out using the external examiner and i don't want to spend another year totally depressed.
I like my project yet the psychological pressure by my supervisor is enormous. He always complains that i don't understand what i am doing...and yes after so many months i started believing that i am useless...
Shall I stay or shall I go ?

It's only you that knows if you can deal with the pressure and the stress of a PhD project. I understand that the relationship with your supervisor is far from idyllic, but you are in charge of your project! People like your supervisor take pleasure in undermining other people's confidence, but a PhD is comprised of many different things. You are not expected to excel in every aspect.
Personally, I seldom had any positive comment from mine. It used to affect me deeply, but then I started to look out of that narrow circle and I got in touch with other scholars in my field, presented at conferences, etc. I always got very positive feedback and that increased my self-confidence. I think you need to strengthen your confidence muscles if you want to go ahead. It's normal to feel demoralised, but self-commiseration will do no good to your PhD. Courage!!!

What scares me is that i had certain arguments with my supervisor in the past and since then he is doing my life miserable. Ive tried to talk to him about if he thinks i should continue or not, but he always gives me the same answer: wait until viva. Deep inside i know he wants me out and that drives me crazy...At the moment i have some control of my project but he never said whether what im doing is right or not...and the external is his best friend at uni..

I understand how you feel, because I have been there. I knew that my objective was the PhD and unfortunately that meant to be supervised by my supervisor! I cannot explain here what I had to go through. I often thought: 'this is enough for me!', but then I realised that it would have meant to give up my dream. No chance!!! Especially because I have very positive feed-back from everyone else! I know only too well that I will never get the support that other students have, nor I will be encouraged to do anything. However, I realised that I had to shift my attention from that person to my project. Do you think that your supervisor would gamble his reputation by taking forward a student who is not capable? I don't think so! I don't think it would reflect very well on his spotless CV having one of his PhDs failing the viva.

Hi MichaelA,

if you stop now you are actually "doing your supervisor a favour". His / her views are confirmed.

I would go for the viva and at least give it a try. You may well do very well! If you give up now you will never know and later on may regret that you did not try. You have nothing to loose.

dont give up now! You have come so very far and i am sure you would always regret not having seen it through until the end. While your examiner may be your supervisors best friend, in your Viva, a chairperson will be there to make sure everything goes fairly, and of course you will have another examiner who also will assure this.
Also, our supervisor wont want you to submit and have a viva if he really did think you would fail, as it affects his RAE rating so perhaps he is one of these mad people who think that if they are really mean to you, it inspires you to work harder.
Either way, you can't give up now because
a) you will always wonder whether you would have passed
b) they cant fail you for no reason
c) you have worked for years to get to this point
d) dont give your examiner the satisfaction, if they really are that awful.
Good luck - do the viva - you have nothing to lose, but lots to gain.
Let us know the outcome, we will all keep our fingers crossed for you.

Thanks for your supporting comments guys

Just wondering if anyone approached the external examiner before viva?

I havent as yet, and you will have to check your university handbook guide for that information, as lots of them specify that no contact must be had with the examiners whatsoever. and you dont want to jepordise your viva!

in your case, the external examiner is your super's good friend, so maybe not worth trying. Otherwise it'll be a problem hoisted by your own petard, which will make the super give you even worse comments. You're not a friend of the external examiner, are you?

I was told that this was a big no no and that it was best to keep a polite and friendly but professional distance from examiners.