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Page TWELVE
THE PILOT—Southern Pines. North Carolina
THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 1957
LOCAL GROUP HEARD
Public Hearing Held On Bill Creating
Certifying Board For Psychologists
Professional psychologists, a
psychiatrist and a large delega
tion from Southern Pines told
the Joint House and Senate
Health Committee, meeting in
Raleigh Friday, that creation of a
certifying board for psychologists
in this state is needed.
A bill to create such a board
was introduced earlier this
month by Rep. H. Clifton Blue of
Aberdeen and has received the
support of the State Hospitals
Board bf Control and several
other agencies.
Blue introduced to the commit
tee a number of people from
here, including John Ruggles, a
member of the State Hospitals
Board of Control, W. Lamont
Brown, county solicitor, and Mrs.
Valerie Nicholson. It Wcis Mrs.
Nicholson who, about a year ago,
was the state’s principal witness
in a case tried in Moore Record
er’s Court in which a man who
lived here and billed himself as
a psychologist was convicted on
charges of criminal libel.
At the meeting Friday Dr.
Lloyd Borstelman of Duke Uni
versity said legislation to create
a certifying board was necessary
because the State at present has
no regulations, the absence of
which “invites charlatans to es
tablish here because they can’t
go to neighboring states, “which
do.”
He said the proposed legisla
tion would not interfere with the
practice of approximately 120
members of the North Carolina
Psychology Association.
Opposition to the bill has de
veloped, it has been reliably re
ported, primarily from the State
Medical Society.
But Rep. John Umstead of
Orange, head of the Hospitals
Board of Control, and Dr. J. W.
Murdock, medical director of
the Board, both spoke in favor
of the bill.
Umstead said that the “psy
chologist” from Southern Pines
had sent “at^ least four” people
for treatment at State mental in
stitutions who did not require
treatment.
Two Seniors Are
Merit Certificate
Winners For 1957
Dr. Borstelman explained to
the joint committee that there is
presently no law in the state to
prevent anyone, regardless of
qualifications, from setting up a
psychology practice. Psychiatrists
who hold medical degrees are in
a different position, he pointed
out, since they are regulated im-
der the state medical laws.
He went on: “Anyone in this
state can call himself a psycholo
gist and have no trouble getting
clients without interference from
the law.”
Many other states have psy
chologist certification bo2irds, he
said, including Virginia, Georgia,
Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mary
land. As the unqualified practi
tioners are driven out of those
states, he added. North Carolina
is their logical prey.
Mr. Ruggles, who is in the real
estate and insurance business
here and longtime member of the
Hospitals Control Board, told the
committee that he had been
“taken in” by the man (whom! he
did not identify by name) but
that he later discovered the
truth.
“But I didn’t feel so bad,” he
added. “All the doctors in town
were taken in, too.”
Brown said that Southern
Pines had seen the problem of
unqualified people practicing as
psychologists “come home to us,
in several very tragic ways.” -
He described as “nightmarish”
the effect of treatments upon a
yoimg boy by a man who called
himself a psychologist in South
ern Pines. He told also of an in
cident of two yoimg girls who
were almost made the victims of a
•■‘conspiracy” to send them to
Saniarcand, a school for delin
quent girls, when treatment by
the so-called psychologist • failed
to bring about the desired results.
Brown said the man had left
the conununity only as a result
of being indicted for criminal
libel because he wrote letters to
four newspapers, (including The
Pilot), libeling Mrs. Nicholson.
He said that such “charlatans”
can have an “insidious and dam
aging effect on a community be
fore it realizes what is happen
ing.”
The committee also heard from
Mrs. Nicholson. She related many
of the events that led to the
eventual trial in which the man
was convicted of criminal libel,
and fined.
Thomas P. Vann and John F.
Chappell, seniors at Southern
Pines High School, have been
awarded certificates of merit
from the National Merit Scholar
ship Corporation, school officials
were notified this week.
The certificates are awarded to
finalists in the merit program
who had achieved a high score on
a scholarship qualifying test, but
who did not win a scholarship.
According to officials of the schol
arship corporation, about one-half
of the top one per cent of high
school seniors throughout the
country were awarded the certif
icates.
Vann is the son of Mrs. Thomas
Vann of 455 S. Ashe St., and
Chappell is the son of Mr. • and
Mrs. Fred Chappell of 240 North
Ridge St.
-t-
She described the results of the
Iso-caUed psychologist’s practice
as a “terrible thing to happen to
a community.” She added that
she had had the psychologist in
vestigated and discovered that he
was a “complete fraud.”
But, she added, “We have just
passed him' bn to others. Because
of the operation of the libel laws,
he can call himself a doctor and
practice on innocent victims
anywhere he wants.”
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