ASPECTS OF MENTAL-HEALTH

Using the data of the Mannheim Cohort project, an epidemiological field study in the industrial, business and university town of Mannheim (FRG), the authors retrospectively analyze those 72 subjects who ranked highest with respect to mental and psychic health. As a main result they find that stress factors in early childhood are conspicuously less marked among the healthy even in comparison to so-called risk persons who tend to fall ill with psychogenic disorders. Strikingly, the number of unpleasant life events in the last three years does not distinguish both groups. Extending Kernberg's classification of psychopathology the authors define two more levels of personality structure to assess a person's psychic functions. This rating of personality structure corresponds well with the Goldberg-Cooper interview. It seems that there is a subgroup among psychologically healthy people that can be distinguished from the rest based on their good defense mechanisms.