What is a Doctor

[ginkgo]

I saw on the internet where someone said she learned that Dr Phil was not a real doctor. She does not know what a doctor is. I saw a guy on a video yesterday with Dr. in front of his name. Also a woman I know sent me stuff about a woman with Dr. in front of her name about parasites and losing weight. Note she is not an MD since she was not in the MD listings.

Now if someone wants to brag about a degree then they should put in the degree instead of Dr so we know what they have learned all about. Dr John Smith can be a Ph.D. in art history or philosophy meanng they are an expert at the history of art or all sorts of philosophies. They could be a PhD in psychology like Dr Phil or a dentist (doctor of dental surgery- DDS) or an animal doctor or a chiropractor or a PhD in English literature meaning that they know all about Moby Dick and Shakespeare. You can even have a PhD in God (religion).

One chiropractor selling newletters says that he is a doctor (he is a DC- doctor of chiropractic), but he does not tell you what he is a doctor in. He does wear a lab coat and a stethescope around his neck so he is trying to mislead people. This makes people suspicicious since with the woman at the top that I mentioned had a thread all about people trying to find an MD with that name there and there were not any, but there is a chiropractor with that name.

Of course Dr John Smith M.D. is repetitive. So you can just say John Smith M.D. or John Smith D.D.S. So I can only see 2 reasons to be vague about your degree. Either you are stupid (if you are an M.D., not a PhD in art history) or you are trying to mislead people like the PhD in art history sees someone having a heart attack and he declares "I am a doctor" [of art history].

People have enough work to do without having to try to track down what someone is a doctor of. But the internet is filled with this.