I’m exclusively a clinician in private practice. Although I also do commercial art on the side, but that’s another story 
. I worked for UCSD’s Department of Outpatient Psychiatry for awhile and consult here and there.
Brynda, the VA and rehab gigs sound tough, emotionally speaking. Good to hear your practice is going well.
Nice to know there are a couple of Psychologist Dopers (hey! Psy.D.'s!)
Carnac, would a professional doctorate be something like a podiatrist for example?
I have a Psy.D. and teach a full-time load across several psych- and psych-related programs at a university. I also do some work at a community college, and have a small private practice. I do a reasonable amount of writing and presenting as well, and a little consulting. I enjoy all of it, and enjoy having a degree that lets me be versatile. The Psy.D. isn’t intended to lead to teaching, generally speaking, but I was a teacher before I trained as a therapist.
I’d say I spend 90% of my work time in instructional and related activities, and about 10% in “other.”
JTHUNDER –
Hey, I’ll let you and the MDs fight it out.
No, I think I’m pretty well informed, thanks. The fact is that culturally and historically, in the United States, medical doctors have almost completely successfully co-opted the term “doctor.” Ask the average American what a “doctor” is and he’s going to give you a definition that reflects “physician,” not “PhD holder.” I’m not particularly interested in the words entymology. Even my atheist friends say “goodbye.”
This is the sort of analysis that amuses me. Look, if you want to think your degree is longer, thicker, and harder than mine, be my guest; I don’t really care. The degrees are not comparable, as you yourself point out. I technically hold a doctorate degree, and therefore I suppose I am technically entitled to refer to myself as a doctor, but I wouldn’t dream of doing so – because I’m not a doctor. If I had a terminal degree in law, I still wouldn’t call myself a doctor. And, with all due respect, I personally wouldn’t think of you as a doctor, either. So then we’re back to “I’m a doctor and you’re not!” which is where my amused response is “okay.” You want to call yourself the Grand High Poobah of Thunderland, it’s no skin off my nose. You earned a doctoral degree; you want to use the title be my guest. But I confess that I will probably secretly, in the recesses of my tiny little heart, think you’re a wee bit pretentious.
I actually have met very few people with PhDs who insist on being called “doctor” or refer to themselves as such. All of my professors, including my JSD law professors, were addressed as “professor.”
CARNAC sez:
I would bite my tongue off before referring to myself as “esquire.” It is miles aways dumber, more pretentious, and harder to defend than “doctor” for the PhD. I figure people who need to know my level of education will figure it out, and other people are not going to care. I personally would be uncomfortable using any title that unnecessarily trumpeted my accomplishments. Unless that title was “Madam President.”
Hey I posted a thread awhile back that tried to make the case that anyone, PhD, MD or JD, who insists on calling themselves “doctor” is being pretentious and on a power play.
“Professor” doesn’t work for quite a few PhDs. I’m a lab guy. Never taught a class in my life.
I have my Doctorate in Genetics and Biochemistry. For my grad work I studied genetic control of lipid synthesis in yeast (Really! It was extremely interesting!)
One year for halloween I dressed up as a “real” doctor (lab coat, plastic doctor kit etc). As a PhD in biology I always get asked- “Why didn’t you want to be a *real * doctor?”
Except by my folks- I always heard while growing up that being a prof was the best thing one could be.
Harp? Is this an academic term? 
If one compares trends over the past 15 years, the professional doctorate is clearly on the rise, whereas academia itself has often and publicly wrung its hands over declining enrollment in traditional (non-Top 20) PhD programs. As an aside, most PhD programs have tiny enrollments. Tiny. The professional doctorate programs, by contrast, often and easily field 30 to 50 candidates, sometimes as many as 100 to 200. In addition, the professional programs are proliferating at a phenomenal rate. Impartial observers predict the traditional PhD will be the exception within the next 15 years.
Carnac, I’m extremely confused. Can you clarify what country and what fields of study you are talking about?
I’m still in progress in my Masters, but I thought I’d let you guys know that I saw the most pretentious license plate in existence the other day. It read: “PHD ESQ”.
I know, but try not to let it bug you.
I bet you wait with great anticipation for that opportunity, Tracy!
Sometimes they just do it themselves.
TRACY LORD –
Whoops! 
Y’know, the real tragedy is I had to read your post three times before I got it. Must be my lack of edumacation.
I’m a Doctor of Obscure Recording Knowledge.
Art History (wrote on context of some 15th-c European paintings). I’m usually a little embarassed by its painfully “useless” humanitiesness, but Dr Drake wins here (thank god for Folklore studies to make art historians feel mainstream!).
One day, in poli-sci 101 class, an administration person came in to tell us that “Dr. Porter will be late…” We students were rather confused at this, until she explained to us about the JD thing. We knew our teacher was a lawyer (and a state assemblyman, to boot!).
That just shows that you deserved the degree, because you’ve been able to show that you don’t understand philsophy.
Well, professor is a more prestigious title than doctor. Lots of people get to earn the title “doctor;” far fewer earn the right to be called “professor.” Obtaining and holding a professorship is more challenging than earning the terminal degree. The tenure process is typically quite ruthless.
I hold a Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition. Don’t wonder much about why it’s not a PhD: there are PhDs is musical composition, but there is little consistent difference nationwide between the two degrees. Some schools offer both a DMA and PhD in composition; in those cases, the PhD usually requires a more rigorous theoretical dissertation. To some extent this is true in other places, but again not consistently.
Am I entitled to the title “doctor”? Absolutely! Of course I don’t insist on it, and no one calls me that, excepting primarily students, and secondarily other academicians referring to me in front of students.
Well, yes, that’s true. The actual job title/rank of “professor” is rather exclusive. However, on this campus (and others I have been on), it’s regularly used as a title of respect for the person at the front of the classroom–which does not necessarily reflect one’s tenure and rank status. It’s just the conventional way to address faculty. I’ve heard assistant professors addressed as “Professor Johnson,” for example. When I was teaching (before I even had the PhD) I had students call me “Professor” (I quickly established the first-name basis thing, but this happened in those early weeks).
Is it unusual that I address my dentist as “Dr.?” I’ve always used that title for dentists as well as M.D.s. Veterinarians too, come to think of it.
Assistant professors, associate professors, and even lecturers are commonly given the courtesy title “professor” by their students, and they are not necessarily holders of tenure, or even on a tenure track. So “professor” is more prestigious to whom? This is my point. The fine distinctions as to which of these titles are “more prestigious” than others, and who is or is not “entitled” to hold them, are subjects that really only matters to people who already hold them and, dammit, want people to know they hold them – and, by extension, do not want them extended to others who don’t hold the same degree or level of degree, because that other person “didn’t work hard enough” and “doesn’t deserve it.” It’s all just so much navel-gazing, because the reality is that to most other people (at least in America), a “professor” is a person who teaches at the university, and a “doctor” is a physician, and they are not inquiring any further than that.
Again, I have no problem in any person, proud of their education and degree, deciding to call themselves by whatever title they see fit. I just find it sort of silly when they go one step further to deciding who is not entitled to use the title – because there is almost always going to be someone else who will in turn look at them and say “no, you’re not entitled to use it, either, only we are.”
But at least where PhDs are concerned there is some societal recognition that they may decide to call themselves doctors. There is no such recognition for lawyers. Lawyers who call themselves “doctor” engage in silliness of the highest level and are widely mocked by their peers. I don’t know any lawyer who does this and don’t even recall it being done by anyone in my professional acquaintance, ever.
I have a PhD in materials engineering and a JD. I don’t call myself doctor. I have always subscribed to the adage that PhDs are like noses - it’s only conspicuous when you don’t have one.
Hey, I worked with two MD/PhD/JDs, neither of whom used doctor, because they weren’t actually practicing medicine.