Should you call me Doctor, or not?

 

When you introduce someone, courtesy calls for giving their title. Sue Fox says in Chapter 5 (Meeting and Greeting, on page 76) of her book on Business Etiquette for Dummies, 2nd edition, 2008 page 76:

“If you know that the woman is a physician, a PhD, or a military officer, use the appropriate title.”

 

But that’s not what Joseph Epstein said in a nasty Walls Street Journal op-ed article on December 11, 2020 titled Is there a Doctor in the White House? Not if you need an M.D. He began by whining:

“Madame First Lady - Mrs. Biden – Jill - kiddo: a bit of advice on what may seem like a small but I think is a not unimportant matter. Any chance you might drop the ‘Dr.’ before your name? ‘Dr. Jill Biden’ sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic. Your degree is, I believe, an Ed.D., a doctor of education, earned at the University of Delaware through a dissertation with the unpromising title ‘Student Retention at the Community College Level: Meeting Students’ Needs.’ A wise man once said that no one should call himself ‘Dr.’ unless he has delivered a child. Think about it, Dr. Jill, and forthwith drop the doc.”

 

Quite properly there was lots of negative feedback for Mr. Epstein. At Wonkette on December 12, 2020 there is an article by Robyn Pennacchia titled WSJ guy takes brave stand against Dr. Jill Biden calling herself Dr. Jill Biden. At NPR on December 13, 2020 there is another article by Rachel Treisman titled Op-Ed urging Jill Biden to drop the ‘Dr.’ sparks outrage online. And at CNN Opinion on December 14, 2020 there is yet another article by Kara Alaimo titled Attack on Jill Biden’s ‘Dr.” title is no surprise for women scholars -- and proof she needs to use it.

 

Taylor Swift’s new song, Marjorie, says to: “Never be so clever you forget to be kind.”

 

Mr. Epstein has written so much previously that we can easily use his own words to refute his claim about needing to deliver a baby before you can be called a Doctor. On page 38 of his 2002 book, Snobbery, he said:

 “Within each of the professions – medicine, law, clergy, engineering – there was a hierarchy, and even a hierarchy within each element of the hierarchy. In medicine an M.D. was above an osteopath, an osteopath above a dentist, a dentist perhaps above a veterinarian, a veterinarian above a chiropractor, a chiropractor tied in a panting dead heat with a podiatrist.”

 

So the medical hierarchy goes:

Medical Doctor (MD)

Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO)

Dentist – Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS)

Veterinarian - Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM)

Chiropractor - Doctor of Chiropractic (DC)

Podiatrist - Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (DPM)

 

You wouldn’t expect a dentist, vet, chiropractor, or podiatrist to deliver a baby - but you still would call them a “Dr.”

 

Although Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) is the best known non-medical title containing doctor, there are at least a half dozen others:

Doctor of Arts (D.A.)

Doctor of Divinity (D.D.)

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

Doctor of Engineering (Eng.D.)

Juris Doctor (J.D.)

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Doctor of Science (Sc.D.)

 

Mr. Epstein clearly is suffering from a case of envy. In 2003 he wrote a book on it titled Envy (in the Seven Deadly Sins series). On page 12 he referred to the psychoanalyst Melanie Klein as Dr. Klein, which is hilariously overblown. Harriet Pass Freidenreich’s 2002 book Female, Jewish, Educated (the lives of Central European university women) says to the contrary on page 87:

“Although some woman psychoanalysts, including Anna Freud and Melanie Reizes Klein, did not have university degrees, most held doctorates in medicine.”