In Reply to: philosophiae doctor posted by lydia on October 06, 2006 at 03:21:09:
Among people with PhDs in the U.S. who are in fields outside of medicine, use of the honorific "Doctor" is generally considered pretentious. Psychology, nursing & social work are always or often medically based, and use of the honorific "Dr. Laura" gives the impression she has acquired some level medical training. A PhD in physical education is not medical training. Such training requires a lengthy clinically internship IN ADDITION to the PhD.
Dr. Laura's doctorate is not in counseling or marital & family therapy. She's a doctor of philosophy in physical education. When she's teaching a class in Phys Ed at university level or speaking on the radio about her area of expert knowledge (physical education), it's appropriate to address her as "Doctor Laura." It's misleading to address her as "doctor" if she's speaking as a counselor or family therapist, because that was not the expert area covered in her general exams or her dissertation topic or the internship practicum she did as an educator.
If her licensure is that of a marital & family therapist, the approriate way to address her is Laura Schlessinger, MAFT or LMFT. It's uncertain to me, however, whether she's actually taken and passed a credentialling exam as a marital & family therapist. My guess would be, No, given the criticism I've read about her from licensed MAFTs. No, because her directive approach to advice-giving over the radio does not adhere to professional standards of practice.
As best as I can tell, her talk show is about morality, not marital and family or mental health counseling. I suppose anyone can weigh in on morality as an expert, but when I want to get an expert opinion on morality, I generally look for someone whose PhD is in philosophy or theology, not physical education. I'd expect the individual to have taken a broad general exam on the subject of morality or ethics and done a dissertation that addressed some aspect of morality or ethics. Under THOSE circumstances, I'd refer to the person offering moral or ethical advice as Doctor So-and-So.
I get hot under the collar about the misuse of honorifics and credentials because PhDs can and do speak outside their area of expertise all the time as though that doctorate qualified them to be experts on, say, child sexual abuse in religious groups, when in fact they have a PhD in theology and know absolutely nothing about the subject when they've been asked to talk about on the radio, television and newspapers about what happened in TFI.
As far as I know, there are very few (if any) theology dissertations on child sexual abuse in religious groups. This is a comprehensive knowledge area for general exams in psychology and social work. Yet we see a PhD in theology, Dr. James Chancellor, giving his "expert opinion" on the child abuse that occurred in TFI and on the consequences of that abuse for the survivors. At best, he documented a history of child abuse in TFI among many other events that took place over a period of 30 years in the history of a religious movement and high demand organization. He should not be cited on the subject of Family child abuse as Dr. James Chancellor. He should be referenced James Chancellor, theology professor.