A " Dr. " different from a PhD ?

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I have Asperger's and am studying to get my PhD now so I will be Dr. in a few years, but not a medical doctor. I also loved Temple Grandin's story. A PhD is definitely not out of reach just because you are on the Autism Spectrum. I have a professor who knows about my diagnosis and get a few accommodations from my university. We make it work. If there is something you are passionate about studying to that level, go for it.

Usually, an advanced law degree in the US is either a LL.M (Master of Laws) or a LL.D (Doctor of Laws). There are still law schools where the basic law degree is a LL.B (Bachelor of Laws) rather than the more common JD. Law schools don't traditionally offer a Ph.D in Law, but there may be some other graduate schools that do.

I have a JD, but it'll be a cold day in hell when you ever catch me referring to myself as "Doctor" Basso.

Heh, yeah, "Lawyer" is much less confusing; most people don't know that a law degree is a doctorate.

I don't see why medical doctors look down on people with other kinds of doctorates. Sure, medicine is a tough and very useful field, and yes, it's one of the harder doctorates to get--but being a doctor of whatever, means you're an expert in whatever, at least according to whoever issued you the doctorate. A doctoral degree in physics means you're an expert in physics, even if you couldn't begin to learn how to remove a gallbladder. Neither can the average doctor figure out the odds that he'll randomly quantum-tunnel through his exam room wall. (It's actually a nonzero probability, and I know how to figure it out. Which means I'm more of a physicist than a doctor, I guess, since I wouldn't trust myself to even describe a gallbladder operation...)

Not that I don't respect MDs--I just think they ought to respect doctors in other fields. They're not "fake doctors" any more than a banana is a fake fruit because it's not an apple.