Crisis during the doctorate?
Typical forms of crisis and psychological stress factors
Desperate scientist
Despite all the positive aspects of doing a doctorate, the doctoral phase rarely goes by unhampered by Crises. It even carries an increased risk of psychological distress and illnesses. This has been the subject of increasing discussion and research in recent years. You will find an overview below.
Typical PhD Crises according to Fiedler and Hebecker
Graphic: Fielder & HebeckerIn the course of a doctorate, there are typical crises that need to be overcome in order to progress with the dissertation. Based on extensive knowledge gained from counselling doctoral researchers, Werner Fiedler and Eike Hebecker have described three typical crises in the doctoral process: The material crisis, the relevance crisis and the completion crisis. After a motivated start, the first crisis follows at some point: the more intensively doctoral researchers familiarise themselves with their research topic, the more they realise how much has already been researched and how much material they would have to process. The best way to get out of this material crisis is to clearly define and narrow your own topic.
Once the research process continues, many slide into the relevance crisis: their own research contribution seems small and irrelevant and they quickly start questioning themselves about the whole purpose of their doctoral project. Here, it can be helpful to present some intermediate results in a colloquium or at a conference, to receive feedback and new reassurance.
At the final stage of the doctorate, many researchers have to deal with the completion and graduation crisis: What are the career prospects after the doctorate, and do I really want to expose myself to those new uncertainties? Those who have dealt with their own professional future at an early stage are usually able to overcome the completion crisis and finalise their doctorate.
HereExternal link, you can find a German article that describes these crises in more detail and shows ways as to how to overcome them. A similar English language attempt at giving an overview of ten possible crises during the doctorate can be found hereExternal link. This articleExternal link might give helpful advice as to some strategies that might help you get through smaller crises of your doctorate.
Another, more overview-like description of possible crises during a doctoral thesis can be found here. The German science journalist Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim also described five different phases of a scientific doctorate in a somewhat ironic way in one of her videosExternal link (German language). A useful TEDx-Talk on the subject was given by Laura Valadez-Martinez, to be watched hereExternal link.