Assessment of mental health and illness, considered in the light of a 13-year longitudinal study (mental health of the Finnish student. Follow-up, report III).

The present study forms part of a longitudinal study of mental health and covers a period of 13 years. Two fundamental findings were obtained in the present work. The first of these was in brief that the development of mental disorders and occurrence of symptoms increase with age. The other finding was that men and women differ in many ways from each other in terms of the nature of mental health. We might say that healthy as well as perhaps more disturbed narcissism takes different forms in women and men. Women are more faithful to tradition, men's interest is more directed toward social concerns and object relationships. Women are more practiced in self-observation, while men resort to action and somatization. Women's symptoms are dominated by fear and worry, while men, following tradition have to mask their fears.