BTW, physicians have used the title “Doctor” since at least the 1300s, many centuries earlier than either the MD or PhD was invented.
Years back, a colleague and I were part-time faculty at a US university; I had had my PhD for some years; he was ‘ABD,’ having quit his program and writing on his dissertation when he got this part-time gig. He was promoted to full time before I was, and was officially listed on the faculty roster as an instructor (the ranks were, TA, instructor, Assistant professor, Associate professor, Full Professor. The last three required a PhD).
He absolutely insisted on being addressed as ‘Professor Knobend’ even to the point of demanding that his door nameplate have Professor Knobend on it rather than Mr, or just his full name. The full-time faculty who had PhDs had just FirstName LastName on their door nameplates.
Of course his name wasn’t actually Knobend but it might as well have been.
In certain workplace situations I am referred to as Dr. DrumBum. This is generally the case at meetings with partners and Ministry officials, and is meant to convey a elevated level of expertise. It is a cultural thing in Angola - and many other cultures - although I have managed to get my Angolan colleagues and friends to called me by my first name.
I completely agree. In fact, I actually have trouble imagining a situation where insisting on “Doctor” would be pretentious and insisting on “Mister” or “Ms.” would not. If it’s ok to expect people to call you by any honorific at all, then I think it’s ok to expect them to call you by the correct one. Now, if someone is ignorant of your honorific, I don’t think it’s polite to correct them, in the general sense that it’s rarely acceptable to correct someone you don’t know well, but I’d never address an MD or Ph.D at “Mr” or “Ms”–it’d be first name or correct title.
Heck, before I came to the USA, I think I’d used “Dr” exactly once (or rather, my grandfather did, when he was in hospital, and I was ABD). 
There is no way that I use the “Doctor” in social settings; I introduce myself as Firstname Lastname, and use “Ms” for when a title is needed. Most people I know socially just refer to me as “First Syllable of Firstname”. I actively get annoyed when people use “Dr” (or even allude to it) socially, as a friend of mine will attest to, when he was asked this weekend, how he knew me, and ended up elaborating that I was a prof at local university and had a PhD in physics.
Now, academia is another thing entirely; colleague to colleague is “Firstname”, to grad students that I’m not formally teaching its “Firstname”, but students in my classes automatically will call me “Dr Lastname”. When someone from admin is referring to me to someone from another department, they also insist on using “Dr Lastname”. It comes in useful sometimes.
My wife, who has a PhD and teaches at a post-secondary institution, usually prefers to be known by her first name but…
…she will likewise insist on the proper honorific. She earned the damn thing and it’s the correct one. HOW she corrects the person depends on the level of offense. The airline ticket sales person gets a polite correction; her boss at work who damn well ought to know better by now and is probably trying to be belittling gets a scathing tone with it. She has also been known to strategically mention it to get better customer service, but only if absolutely necessary; her father likewise will casually refer to himself as “Colonel” (which he is, retired) for the same reason.
Not in the UK (or indeed some other countries such as Germany IIRC). “Professor” denotes not merely a college lecturer but a specific awarded senior status. An academic department may have several teachers but only one or two Professors.
Just sayin’.
Cite - because my understanding is that Doctor was for learned people back when a physician could be just about anyone handy with a cutting saw:
My wife earned her PhD, so I like to introduce myself as Mr. Dr. Algher
The last place I worked had an abundance of PhDs, but very few of them made a big deal about it. Management loved to trot them out as evidence of our resident expertise, but in some cases, it was just evidence of someone who had more schooling than someone else… For the most part, they were working slugs like those of use who only had BS on our diplomas. 
I only encountered one person who was a butt about his PhD. Eons ago, my parents hosted a party and one of the guests had just been awarded his doctorate in a liberal arts field. I could have been happy for him, except for his insistence upon being called Doctor. He was just a jerk, regardless of his credentials…
My own Ph.D. is sparkling new, and I’ve not yet had occasion for anyone to mention it except at the university, so I’ve not yet had to correct anybody. But really, while I’ll be fine with the title in the professional setting, as at a conference, on my card, my office door, my syllabi etc, and when colleagues introduce me during exams or the like, I’ve no interest in using it privately–whether on my Amazon account, door bell, or what have you. It’s a professional degree, not a wondrous transmogrifier of my person into something en-titled.
Which also makes me wonder about people who insist on being called “Dr.” because (and I quote acquaintances) “they worked so hard for that title”. While I was working on my PhD, my mum ran the family store and my dad went to work every day for eight hours. I did NOT work any harder than them, that’s for sure. They don’t get a title for their work–it’s not clear to me why my effort, as such, such entitle me to greater societal respect…
[Maybe I’d be okay if those folks just said “Please call me Dr., it certifies I’m smarter/had a greater opportunity to learn/had mum and dad behind me paying for my graduate school”…]
According to the dean of academics at the small university which employs me, PhD stands for “piled higher and deeper.” I imagine this is an old joke.
When introduced, I am happy to call a doctor of any kind “Doctor” but if we’re in a social setting and he/she doesn’t invite me to call him/her by their first name, chances are we’re not gonna be friends.
I call her “mom”
No one ever calls me Dr. unless it is part of a joke.
In our lab the only time we call anyone Dr. is immediately after their defense. It is very much in good cheer and to emphasize the congratulations. About a week after that we all stop.
In social settings, never. (I’m a PhD not an MD and I have several friends who are MDs). If anyone were to be called Dr. it would be them. And that doesn’t happen either.
Relevant scene from The Big Bang Theory:
The President of the university, Dr. Gablehauser, is greeting the guys.
PREZ: Dr. Cooper
SHELDON: Dr. Gablehauser
PREZ: Dr. Koothrappali
RAJ: Dr. Gablehauser
PREZ: Dr. Hoffstader
LEONARD: Dr. Gablehauser
PREZ: Mister Wolowitz
HOWARD: (meekly) I have a Master’s degree…
PREZ: Who doesn’t?
Personally, I prefer not to let people know that I am a Doctor. The last thing I need is for people to keep hitting me up for free medical advice or Viagra samples. From my experience, I notice that the longer you are a physician, the less you want people to know it. The people that are most desperate for everyone to call them “Doctor” are the medical students, residents and younger doctors. I will never forget seeing the license plate “MD2B” on the car of one of my colleagues in the medical school parking lot. My wife insists on making all our airline, restaurant and hotel reservations under “Doctor” so and so because she believes that it will get us better service. I am convinced that it probably gets us worse service and embarasses the hell out of me to have people think that I’m one of those “sticklers,” but I have never been able to convince her to stop doing that.
I think it’s at worst pretentious, and at best professional. So in a professional setting were it would MATTER, no problem. As a personal introduction, it certainly tells you more about the person than his or her first name ever could, that’s for sure. And I don’t mean that s/he has a degree.
My sis has a PhD and I’ve never heard her refer to it at all. Of course, we don’t work in the same filed and I don’t tend to hang out with her work people, so it occurs to me I have never heard her title used at all.
When she got her degree, I told my kids they had to call her “Dr Auntie (Name)” but they cried and said “No!”- LOL!
Yep. The whole sequence:
BS = bullshit
MS = more shit
PhD = piled higher and deeper
I do have a Ph.D, and yes, I demand others address me as doctor. And why shouldn’t I? Don’t many of you other Ph.Ds drive nicer cars than everyone else? Don’t we make more money and live in bigger homes with beautiful spouses, and aren’t our children better educated than those masses who shop at Wal-mart? Buying a Mercades and wearing expensive wristwatches are subconscious desires to distinguish ourselves from others who are less privileged and cannot afford to do the same.
Is it wrong to buy a car that cost more than an ordinary citizen makes in four years? Is it wrong to buy a suit that costs more than a normal citizen makes in a month? Although its difficult to admit, the fact is anyone with a Ph.D obtained one to earn more money / elevate their social standing.
It’s in our human nature to categorize ourselves and stand out against competitors. If two children are riding bicycles at a skate park, don’t they compete to find out who the better stuntman is? Adults do it too, but because of arrogance and fear of egotism, they would rather hide their accomplishments rather than boast about them. If you have a higher education than 95% of the citizens, why should that accomplishment be omitted? I believe too many of you choose to express your accomplishments in subtle ways, ( by buying unnecessary things) but do not follow through through with your ideology that you are more privileged than others (by insisting to be called doctor).
Refusing to be called doctor is just an arrogant, self-presevering attempt to fit in with others who you mistakingly wish to identify with. Gaining acceptance from these people is a subconscious wish to avoid the same fate as Socrates. Insist to be called doctor. Don’t be ashamed of who you’ve become.
I would find it weird if someone insisted on being referred to as Dr in a social setting, but that’s only because it would also be really weird if someone were being called Mr/Ms/Miss Lastname in a social setting. Really, who does that?
Is this a zombie whoosh? If you do have a PhD, I would’ve expect your training to teach you there are shades between black and white, the two positions you talk about. And to be frankly a bit more realistic. Because that is a caricature.
It may elevate my social standing, but I have no need in most occasions to announce it.
Yea, no. Some people don’t care much for competition, or at least the types of competition you describe. I rode the bike when I was a kid, and never was interested in stunts. Also, again, the other point (about buying unnecessary things) is wrong.
I’m not ashamed of what I’ve become. I just don’t see the use of mentioning my title in social settings. I do not hide it and will mention it if asked. In fact, sometimes it is my family and friends who point out my titles in front of others.
Now at work, sure, call me by my title.
It’s Fraulein Doktor Doktor now.