Hey Mr Badge, can you solve a mystery for me? In most fanfictions I read when they visit a doctor, the protagonist or the doctor propose to call them by their first name. Why? Is it an American thing or a FF thing? I would never ever think about calling my docotor by his/her first name. Here in Germany you would only call your doctor by his/her first name if your friends with them.
I think this is proooobably an American thing, at least as opposed to a German thing.
The default American address is extremely informal -- we consider it generally acceptable to call someone by their first name once we’ve met them, unless we’re in certain settings like a courtroom or government office.
However, doctors get an honorific (Dr. as opposed to Ms.) and while we are their paying clients they are in a position of authority. So Americans will generally, on first meeting someone in that situation, address them by their honorific.
It’s so weird to do that, however -- to call someone Dr. Soandso or even Mr. Xyz instead of a first name -- that it makes everyone involved uncomfortable. The doctor may feel like they’re imposing a grandiosity they don’t really have, or putting off a client by insisting on formality, and the patient may feel like they’re being overly formal and awkward. So generally the exchange is:
“Dr. Soandso.”
“Please, call me Alice.”
This lets the doctor know that we do recognize their honorific, while letting the patient know that the doctor doesn’t consider the honorific necessary, that a “normal” (for Americans) form of address will be fine going forward.
I’ve never really put much thought into it, tbh. I don’t know if I’ve ever written a similar exchange, though probably I have. But yeah, it’s basically just a way of acknowledging authority while also permitting informality.
