Primrose Road

Fighting a Brecht-and-Deleuze-induced headache, I took two Advil and went to the Chinese restaurant up the block to get some chicken fried rice. While waiting fifteen minutes for my rice, I paged through a copy of The Learning Annex's latest catalog, noting every seminar led by someone with the letters "Ph.D." after his or her name.

On a related note, can we please grind up the Law of Attraction, bake it in a pie, and serve it to its mother for dinner?

Of the six "Ph.D."s in the catalog, two are legit. One woman teaches Law of Attraction-style thinking, but she has a dissertation listed in Dissertation Abstracts International. Another, despite being endorsed by Oprah, has a Ph.D. from an Ivy League school, with a dissertation on a non-woo topic. The other four (I'm being nice and not including names):

1) A Ph.D. in "energy medicine." Two biographies online tell us where he's taught, but not where he obtained his degree.

2) A Ph.D. candidate at an unaccredited distance education school of "esoteric and hypnotherapy studies." According to her bio, she attended one accredited university, though it doesn't say anything about her having graduated or earned a degree. The second institution listed does not appear to exist anywhere outside of the woman's own biography.

3) A "former psychology professor" who doesn't tell us where she formerly professed. She also isn't forthcoming on where she earned her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, which would explain why there are no hits on her very distinctive name in Dissertation Abstracts International.

4) A "metaphysicist" who calls herself "Dr. ______ ________, Ph.D.," though her site mentions nothing about her having earned a degree. There are zero hits on her name in Dissertation Abstracts International.

Word of advice: people with accredited, legitimate advanced degrees tend to be forthcoming about where they earned those degrees.