How to make this academic year the "final year" of your PhD if your adviser does not care about your graduation and just wants you to keep working for him.

Don't bother to look after your personal hygiene :-)

:-)

paulknit,
Actually your suggestion is great!
That exact thing may be little hard to do, but I think along those lines there may be a solution...

you know what this is a VERY common occurrence! just the other day i was talking to my friend and he is super stressed that he thinks the sup will drag out his final year just so he can use him for slave labour. its a toughie. because sup's have this power of convincing you that the data is not enough you need more and more and more!!!

my advice, start writing up. because one day you will get a letter from the uni that you MUST submit then your sup HAS to let you stop and submit.

thanks Lara for the advice. The problem is that these mean advisers always give the feeling that they don't care and that they are just being hypocritical all the time and continuously trying to manipulate the student, which they very strongly feel that is in the benefit of the student. So even if they actually don't have a problem with this being the final year, they just don't want to accept it now. While this tactic may have its benefits, this creates a feeling of insecurity for the student. In my case I am beginning my 5th year now, and really want to graduate sometime in 2009. Even though I will make it happen, I just wished the adviser was a little more supportive and open in terms of discussing a tentative date to avoid the unnecessary insecurity feelings. I don't mind the stress from working hard, but this feeling of insecurity of not knowing when you will graduate, this can be quite irritating sometimes.

Are you being paid for hanging on like this? Remind him that you have bills to pay!