Reflection on Chris Fleming's Diseases of the Thesis

A Feedback on Chris Fleming’s Diseases of the Thesis
By: Robert John C. Napoles

As a novice in the thesis world, Chris Fleming’s Diseases of the Thesis is a humorous intellectual collection of anecdotal claims for me. According to Chris Fleming, there are different psychological disorders that a writer is experiencing or has experienced through his course of thesis writing, namely: Fraud Paranoia, Reading Depression, Never-ending Story Delirium, Motion Sickness, Been there, Done that Illness, and Pre-emptive Strike Syndrome.

As part of his introduction, Mr. Fleming said and may I quote, “These illnesses are not unique to persons; although it might be stretching it to call them ‘cultural’, it seems fairly evident that they are not merely individual maladies. It is, however, part of a symptomatology common to them all to suggest just this to those afflicted – part of the disease, that is, is to believe that you are alone in having it (and perhaps also beyond cure).” In my understanding, Mr. Fleming claims that every disease that he enumerated should be considered as a stereotyped syndrome of psychological disorders when making a thesis because they occur to thesis writers in general. Classifying and differentiating mental disorders is laborious and confusing thus the Psychiatric diagnosis, as a medical framework for understanding mental health, has been integrated into cultures worldwide. There are two manuals that inform us of psychiatric classifications: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) published by the World Health organization (WHO). (British Journal of Nursing, 2008) Mr. Fleming’s aforementioned diseases are not from meticulous and exhaustive typology, as he said. Although some maybe popular or catching, they are not recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Another claim made by Mr. Fleming is that, a part of the mechanism of these diseases in affecting thesis writers is to shroud the individual into an illusion that he is isolated with these problems but in reality, almost all thesis writers experience the same. In the medical field, clients are considered unique through the course of diagnosis and treatment. (Nursing Outlook, 2000) Though diseases are classified based on their corresponding signs, symptoms and pathophysiologies, clients are still considered as highly individualized persons.

I stated earlier that this reading material appears “humorous” for me in the sense that I can relate to each diseases with an inside joke. For instance, Fraud Paranoia claims that a thesis writer’s intellectual ambitions amount to little more than an elaborate hoax designed to mislead people just to salvage the thesis writer’s competency. In relation to my experience in deciding on what particular problem to undergo study with, I realized that oftentimes a writer wants to deal with the issue that he’s most interested in. It is not his intent to commit a malicious deceit, a malevolent deception, or a fraudulent misinterpretation of what is already unknowingly present in the countless collection of studies. Thus it is an obsolete requirement that a thesis writer vigorously reads and reads and self-regulate in order to deflect this mistake. Self-regulation in doing a thesis involves planning or goal-setting, organizing, self-consequencing, seeking help and information, and environmental structuring. (Lajom & Magno, 2010) May we be reminded also that before a research or thesis proposal is approved for publish, the writer is given the opportunity to capture and reflect upon all aspects of the work completed during the research process. Its sole purpose is to prove that the chosen research approach was carefully considered, ethically applied and, as a result, the research has made a useful contribution to the body of nursing research knowledge. (Rolfe 1998) Furthermore, the most high-level, research-based degrees are examined on the written thesis and through a viva voce (oral examination known as a viva). The viva offers the opportunity for questions not clearly answered through reading the thesis to be asked. It allows the examiners to determine whether the student is familiar with the literature, has personally completed the research and has written the thesis. (Hardy, 2005)

In conclusion, writing a research thesis can be one of the most demanding endeavour. It subjects the writer to diverse and multifarious botherations and predicaments. Psychological stressors may arise, but one must not delve in dealing with them. The goal of writing a thesis is not to make the writer a deranged man, but to use the product of the study to provide or add a comprehensive description of what is known in and around the field of inquiry. To err is human...

The writer of this reaction paper wants to hear from you:

1. Acknowledging that the readers of this reaction paper are researchers and thesis writers as well, are there instances that you have personally experienced any of Chris Fleming’s Psychological diseases during your thesis making?

2. If your answer is yes, why and how did it/they arise?

3. Will you succumb in the idea that in writing a thesis, you develop psychological disorders that haunts you for life?

4. What are the better experiences that you can share, in making a thesis, that would envelope this monogamous psychological syndrome that Chris Fleming recognized?

Thank you for your reply Ms. Ylagan.

I for one have experienced some of Chris Fleming's coined psychological disorders even though I'm just at my early stage of writing a thesis. The "Motion sickness" disorder is a menace whenever I try to sit still infront of the computer. When I try to think on how I could innovate and improve what I already wrote in the introduction of my research study, I end up thinking or doing other things. The "Pre-emptive strike syndrome" usually causes my dismay. Whenever I try to write about something interesting for me, assuring that the issue is within the perimeters of nursing, I end up throwing it in the recycle bin because the end-result is not good enough for me, or in secluding the defense mechanism, I think that it's not good enough for others.

Does this mean that we are accepting these diseases as part of our thesis-writing-lives?

Hi RJ!

Answering to the questions you posed, yes, I have at some point experienced gloominess (but not really to the point of major depression) during thesis writing. It occurred just when I'm about to start, maybe because of the idea of the time and effort I'll be spending in making it and also sometime during the process when I'm in doubt of what idea to come up with. But we should remember that thesis writing is a methodology, wherein there are steps to follow that can make the experience on making one much easier. I agree when you said, "The goal of writing a thesis is not to make the writer a deranged man, but to use the product of the study to provide or add a comprehensive description of what is known in and around the field of inquiry."

With the guidelines in thesis writing, previous researches, and the help of our advisers considered, a writer is not tormented and alone just as what Mr. Flemming claimed, on the contrary, the writer benefits from the newly found knowledge out of his hard work.

As of the comments that I've recieved so far, I concur that Chris Fleming's Diseases, though not officially recognized and generally accepted by all, are psychological maladies that occur to many thesis writers beyond their control. It is good to know then that such afflictions happen and we are not alone in having them. The awareness ideally would lead us to better compliance with these diseases of the thesis.

Thanks for the reply Ms. Santos.

Well, I also don't agree with Chris Fleming's thought that a lot of thesis makers would result to fraud just to prevent a halt in writing (as what Ms. Ver always justify with her "methodological stand in thesis writing" -> ).

The thing about thesis writing (which I only realized now because I have to be serious in doing it) that makes it seem like a perilous journey is that, before you start, you should meticulously dig up each and every researches and studies related to your chosen thesis problem so that there would be a very minimal possibility that your work would not turn out to be a copy from others. It is like an inquest or a wild-goose chase where, if humanely feasible, you leave no stones unturned. That's where I think the paranoia originates.

Yes, it is exact that our goal in making our own thesis is to contribute something untouched or to descry the least recognized in the field of nursing; but it wouldn't kill us if we try to be like an Avant-garde while doing it (which I think Ms. Makalintal would agree since she is a quintessence of creative writing).

Fraud paranoia is an enthralling topic to argue with because it solicits a lot of negative reactions but I think it's time to give attention to the other five diseases which are equally interesting to discuss.

How about we tackle on:

Motion sickness defined as a disease of the thesis that relates more to motor abilites and is obvious only when sitting down in an attempt to work. To an observer, unaware of your condition, you (the thesis writer) look like you have sat on a sharp object. You may decide that pain caused can only be relieved by a cup of tea, whereupon you return only to have your buttocks again meet the sharp object. Tea apparently didn't work.

OR

Pre-emptive Strike Syndrome defined as a disease of the thesis that has these symptoms: you glaze over your writing in the morning, and it appears to you like a teenage poetry you used to write drunk or stoned. But you weren't drunk or stoned. At this point you decide that you can't or won't share this dross. Why? 'It's not ready yet.' You say:
"this is a draft."
"this is a rough draft."
"a very rough draft."
"a very, very rough draft."
"this is crap."
"I didn't write it."
"I found it. Can you believe that?"
"I thought you might find it interesting."
"Actually, you won't, I don't think. I didn't. Not sure why I'm showing you actually." <- : Does this ring a bell? This is a major reaction that applies to all e10 members when it's time to showcase our work to Mr. Butcon!

Thanks for your replies Ms. Amabelle, Ricca, and Cez.

I am with you in acknowledging that some of Chris Fleming's mentioned psychological diseases are but products of our thesis writing stress. I even think that these diseases do not apply only to thesis writers but to everyone working on something that has to be productive, worthwhile to invest attention to, or something that can be of servitude or help to the world or mankind; any work that requires utmost responsibility. Thus, it also creates untoward symptoms to the pressured worker.

Ms. Makalintal, thank you for your compliment. I just wanted to make our classmates aware that there is more to talk about than fraud paranoia and reading depression, that actually there are four more diseases unnoticed...and maybe because I got bored in reading negative attacks to fraud paranoia which bulked a lot of our classmates' threads.

Ms. Poblete, about your question, well actually I got confused.

Ms. Catalan, yeah I experienced that too! Whenever I read an information that's quite a marvel, I tend to insert it to wherever part of my paper. But then I realize, Sir Butcon wouldn't be happy seeing this...it would just make my statements unbearing and at lost and he would be abhored by this. So I delete the "unuseful useful information" that I got. Thanks for siting that one.