I was about to ask if it wasn’t “Herr Doktor,” but then I saw your profile explains that you’re neither male nor German. So, uh, saved me the embarrassment.
This seems to come up as a reason. In Hari Seldon’s example, the guy wanted his hard work recognized.
Why insist on having the work you’ve put into getting an MD/PhD recognized by everyone you meet?
If that hard work was worth it, won’t you acquire knowledge and abilities which are beyond most people? If so, then you’ll get recognition because of the results your knowledge and abilities enable you to effect, not because of a title. If not, then getting that MD/PhD wasn’t that smart.
For me, the greatest abuse of the title “Dr.” is when it is used to suggest expertise in a field where the Dr. does not possess it.
This includes advocates of medical/health woo who style themselves as “Dr.” when their degrees are in such areas as chemistry and English literature.
Chiropractors frequently disguise or minimize their actual credentials in advertisements. And I’ve lost count of how many letters to the editor I’ve seen where ludicrous claims were made by people signing off as Dr. So-and-so, who actually turned out to be chiros, naturopaths or other non-M.D. practitioners. People naturally assume that someone named “Dr.” who is dispensing health advice is an M.D., but it isn’t necessarily so.
Like Dr. Laura?
For a few years after I got my PhD, I rather enjoyed it when my wife introduced me as Dr. Inexplicable. But, I very rarely introduced myself as such. In my work environment, most of the people I worked with had doctorates of various disciplines and we NEVER called each other ‘Doctor’ except, of course, when we were meeting at a bar when it was ‘Doctor’, <nod>, ‘Doctor’, <nod> and so on. For some reason that never got old.
When my daughter got her doctorate, I made a point of calling her Doctor <Lastname> until she told me to stop. I couldn’t help it. I was so proud of her. Still am, actually.
I have a Ph.D. and never introduce myself as Doctor in social settings. It comes up rarely. However, when I’m in business meetings with customers my boss will often mention it to people who haven’t met me before. She thinks it helps to impress them with our qualifications.
I think people are conflating several different things.
Do you insist people call you “Dr So-and-so” in a situation where people normally go by their first name? You’re being an ass.
Do you insist on being called “Dr So-and-so” in a one-off situation when someone calls you “Mr So-and-so”. This is usually not worth it (but can be if they’re deliberately doing you down, not just automatically being polite in a situation where they’ve no reason to know your title).
Do you insist on being called “Dr So-and-so” when someone you know repeatedly refers to you as “Mr So-and-so”? This can go either way. In some cultures it’s normal to insist on Dr whenever you’d go by a title, in others, you’d only use it for an academic setting. But I do think women have a particular reason to insist, if people are using the wrong honorific (especially so if they’re deliberately using the wrong honorific).
I have a Ph.D., and I can only think of two instances where I’ve been called “Dr.” in a non-joking way:
(1) When I (female) was on jury duty and the lawyers repeatedly referred to the (male) M.D. next to me as “Dr.”, and to me as “Ms.”, despite knowing that I had a doctorate. The forth or fifth time this came up, I insisted on my honorific, dammit. Still got put on the jury, so apparently this didn’t upset them much.
(2) When my mother (an M.D.) was going into major surgery and being introduced to her medical team, she introduced me and her other friend there (also an M.D.) as “Dr. Daughter and Dr. Friend”. However, that wasn’t social: that was a very clear message to the surgical team that we were not to be fucked with.
Oh, and by all of the poor secretaries that have to use honorifics to avoid the possibility of offending a visiting scientist - I feel bad for them.
Years ago, at one department, we had good secretaries and they would book our flights under “Dr.”. This seemed to help. E.g., one time we missed our connecting flight (another PhD and me) and got booked to a nearby city. (There was strike stuff going on and it was hard to go anywhere on-the-fly*.) The counter person there gave us a free rental car to drive home. Didn’t see anyone else getting a car.
In recent years, the only time I asked to be called “Dr.” was seeing an specialist MD who was acting like a superior jerk. So I pointed out that I have a PhD, he got the point. “Dr. FtG” from then on.
I think people should be friendly and drop pretenses. Titles should be limited to things like obits and letterheads.
*Sorry.
This is well said.
I was part of a hobby club. The sort of hobby that tends to attract a lot of engineers and scientists. (among others, of course)
At one point there was a bit of a disagreement between Nate Goodguy and Booby deBois (not real names).
Nate: <after drawing calming breath> “Look, Mr. DeBois …”
Booby: <interrupting> “It’s DOCTOR deBois!” <Physics PhD, I think>
Nate:“Very Well, DOCTOR deBois, it’s Dr. Goodguy for all that, but as I was saying…”
Having thus betrayed himself as a total dickhead, Booby was forever after known as Dr. Doctor by my circle of friends. In fact it was a struggle to come up with his actual name so I could alter it for the above description.
If you first knew the person professionally where the honorific was traditional (say they were your college prof. who you kept in touch with) and then came to know them socially, then keeping on with the honorific might be natural and reasonable. To insist that someone you know only socially address you by the honorific, especially if you are not an MD…pure asshattery.
I make the exception for MD’s because it CAN occasionally be helpful to have in your mind that so-and-so is a doctor, like when Bill starts having chest pains and shortness of breath at a cocktail party.
Oh good lord. Then I am irritating. Well it’s not my worst fault.
That sort of presentation is what 911 is for. Call EMS, then ask if there’s a doctor in the house. A smart health professional in that situation will just ensure that no CPR is needed while waiting for the rescue folks to arrive.
It’s simply polite to call someone by the name they request to be called, regardless of position, status or situation. If you don’t do that it that makes one wonder why- to annoy on purpose or try to “put someone in their place”? And unfortunately, does make the person doing it kind of an ass.
I only insist that rocks call me “Dr.” Everyone else gets to use my first name.
I worked with someone who wanted to be called “Doctor” so-and-so. Having been granted an honorary D. Div after making a ‘donation’ to an American ‘church’, I pointed out that they would therefore need to call me “Reverend Doctor”, and corrected her every time I heard her correcting someone over her title.
I got one for you. I’m a Doctor of Pharmacy, but nobody has ever called me Dr. I also would never insist folks call me Dr. Smokey since I thought based on Emily Posts’ etiquette rules, you only refer doctors if they have MDs or PhDs (in America).
Also, I’d never insist anyone call me doctor since I work as a staff pharmacist and work alongside (doing the same job) as those with Bachelors of Pharmacy. The degree got inflated so that the last ten yrs all new grads had to finish with a Doctorate. The same scenario is going for physical therapy too as my physical therapist said he will have to finish his doctorate.
In Europe and Africa, lawyers are called doctors.
I became a Universal Life Church minister years ago, so if someone wants to go all titles on me, I insist on Reverend Professor Doctor Doctor Attack. I just wish my real name were as cool as ‘Attack’.
In medical school, “Doctor” is often the opposite of an honorific (except, of course, if it’s a student addressing a Professor).
Resident to med student, e.g.: What would you like to do now, Doctor?
Resident to resident (sarcastically): I see that you made a great decision there, Doctor.
Socially, there’s no such thing as “making” someone call you anything, is there? I would never introduce myself as “Doctor,” and I am irritated at the common expression, “My name is Doctor Pedant.” No. Your name is Chief Pedant. Your title is “Doctor,” and you are a pompous ass if you use introduce yourself that way in a social setting.
I might also mention that in many circles, a physician might well find herself in the lower tier of status. Money and/or a high corporate position typically outrank a lowly doctorate in any field, medicine or otherwise. Those who seem to want to attach significance to themselves by attaching “Doctor” to their name come off as wannabes and not Players.
Even in front of patients, it has been my practice to introduce myself as “Chief Pedant. I’m the physician seeing you today.”
The patient should decide what she wants to call you, and patients often (but not always) want the professional barrier there. Especially if they are exposed.
I am not above occasionally hauling out a title for petty personal gain, but hey…I never went so far as to pretend I was a Marine Biologist. That sort of approach inevitably backfires.
Unless I am very mistaken, the tradition in the US (probably not practiced in fifty years) is that only medical doctors are known as “Dr. So-and-so.” The only exception was an academic instructor being addressed by his or her students (and as noted above, protocol varied school to school as to whether “Doctor” or “Professor” was regarded as the proper address). Even a psychologist would be introduced as Mr. or Mrs./Miss So-and-so (this being before Ms. became popular).