Alike so many other posters on this thread, and within these forums, my own personal experience has been identical on so many levels. It would truly appear from the amount of clinically depressed individuals posting on this profoundly melancholy website that this form of study should literally come with a health warning. This in light of the degradation and demotivation that seems to be the natural result of interfacing raw talent, drive and ambition with the ego-driven and ultra closed-shop world of modern academia.

"Sorry to be a miserable git, but I am still irritated by my experience. The UK PhD machine is not efficient and requires more patience from the student than one would expect from a first world system. I've seen a number of highly intelligent and ambitious people systematically demotivated and arguably forced to be subservient to a bunch of entrenched egos who are not quite as bright as they think they are. Welcome to a life in academia."

Patrick O's commentary above completely encapsulates my feelings about the PHD experience.....I initially engaged with this form of study as an escape from a work sector that I now subsequently view as ultra-professional and dynamic in light of my interface with the half-wit world of British academia ...sleepwalking its way to complete annihilation.