Volume 184 - Issue 6
What’s in a title?
Author: Garry J Walter
Med J Aust 2006; 184 (6): 312. || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2006.tb00255.x
Published online: 20 March 2006
Published online: 20 March 2006
Garry J Walter
Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Coral Tree Family Service, University of Sydney, PO Box 142, North Ryde, NSW 1670. gwalterATmail.usyd.edu.au
To the Editor: I read with interest Brooks’ letter on the value of professorial titles.1 It is not only in academic circles that the subject sometimes arouses passions. A short while ago, my wife had reason to speak sternly to our two young children. Losing the plot, my daughter replied, “What would you know, mum? You’re not a professor.” At that moment in this household, as I found myself slinking towards my study, the status of a professorial title — at least in my wife’s eyes — amounted to very little.