Can you apply for temporary disability benefits retroactively if you were not working at the time that the doctor documented you as totally temporarily disabled?

Obviously you could not have been working at a time when you were totally, if temporarily, disabled. There are however several questions here: since you want to apply retroactively, how long ago was this? Applications have time limits. How did you become disabled? From whom are you seeking benefits? All of these may affect the answer to your question. That said, chances are that yes, you can apply.