THE YOUNG man's radiant smile belied the fact that he was lying in an iron lung completely paralyzed. He seemed as cheerful and as interested in life as he had been when previously seen playing basketball, working in his teachers' quorum, or attending his church meetings in the ward. He was afflicted with poliomyelitis, and his body was no longer sound and able to function as it once did. His mental reactions, however, continued to be sound and healthy. His questions to visitors, though haltingly uttered in the rhythm of the mechanical breathing machine, were about how things were going at home, what friends were doing, what was happening in the ward, rather than any thoughts of self-pity, deep discouragement, or open hostility toward others. Although this young teen-ager had had to give up most of the things that constituted his daily life activities, he was able to retain good, even excellent, mental health.

        Good mental health as was manifested by this young man is not as common as it should be. As a matter of fact, some authorities fn say that one out of every ten persons suffer from some form of poor mental health. The National Institute of Mental Health reported that in 1948 there were approximately 600,000 people confined to mental hospitals. More than half of the hospital beds in use this day are occupied by mental patients. We are also told fn that if we knew the people we see in any general physician's waiting office we would discover that half of them have poor mental health either as their main difficulty or as complicating some physical ailment. Of the men rejected for service in World War II, poor mental health was the biggest single reason for their rejection. Among the men who were released from military service on medical discharges, about half had a diagnosis which said their mental health was not good. If we realize that divorce, delinquency, marital discord, and unhappiness also indicate the presence of emotional maladjustment, we acknowledge that poor mental health is the number one health problem of our country.

        There are many degrees and kinds of poor mental health. It can be as mild as a slight headache or it can be as severe and disabling as cancer. It may only show in a few of our personal relationships or it may be so disrupting that we must be hospitalized for medical treatment.

        Mental health is a matter of degree, not an absolute attainment. We cannot speak of a person having or not having sound mental health; we would have to say what degree of mental health a person has attained. Neither is mental health a static condition. We may have good mental health today and a week later have very poor mental health. There is no time in life when we are not susceptible to emotional ill health, so there is no time when we can say, "I have attained good emotional health, so I need not be concerned about it further." The child of six months and the person of ninety-two are in the process of developing or maintaining a good emotional adjustment.

        From a positive approach, how can we determine whether or not good mental health exists? Oscar Ewing fn has said that good mental health exists if we are able "to operate at our top capacity both physically and mentally, to experience human companionship, to accept individual differences, to take the bitter with the sweet and be master of our own soul, to accord to peers the freedom we like." fn A group of psychiatrists has defined good mental health as a "state of well-being, of efficiency at work, and of harmony in human relationships." fn Looking at our mental health is, then, another way of looking at our happiness, our productivity, and our ability to get along with other people.

        One's mental health could not be predicted at birth any more than we could anticipate that a person might some day have tuberculosis or rheumatic fever. It is generally considered that what happens to one after birth will be the determining factors of influence on one's emotional adjustment. Mental health is not present fully or absent fully at any moment from birth on. The achieving of good mental health is a process which goes on continually. Through association, our mental health is influenced by the mental health of our parents. We are the participants in the mental health of our children and our grandchildren. There is no time in our lives when we finally achieve mental health. We have to work as hard to have good mental health at ninety as we do at nine.

        The mentally upset are found in all vocational groups, all educational brackets, and all economic levels. Suicide attempts are indications of emotional maladjustment and among those people who commit or attempt suicide are found the poverty-ridden derelict, the millionaire, and the socially prominent. Of those who are maladjusted emotionally are also found the businessman, the professional person, the engineer, the farmer, and the laborer.

        The process of attaining good mental health is thus a perpetual striving for each one of us. How, in this process, can our religion help us?

        We know that the child should have love and affection, respect and consideration, if it is to attain good mental health, but how can a sound understanding of the principles of the gospel contribute to a parent's loving his child? As a religious people, we believe that the birth of a child heralds the advent of another spirit into mortality where this spirit can partake of the experiences of this life and then, having lived properly and fully, can be ushered back into the presence of God. The child in the home of a good Latter-day Saint is a spiritual asset to the parents who beget him, because the Lord has commanded that we should multiply and replenish the earth. These points of view, as included in the doctrines of the Church, would inspire any parent to see the infant as an object to be loved and tenderly cared for, and these are the essentials of good mental health for the infant. The child reared will an atmosphere of love and respect will sense in the facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice of his parents their attitude, which will provide him the requisites of good mental health.

        The basic philosophy of the Church is such that one sees the declining years of life still as potentially useful years.

        As the child grows to school age, he gradually moves away from the home and associates more and more with people outside of his own family, and his early conditioning will dictate largely the nature of these new relationships with other people. Here too, the Church has activity which will give the young child a feeling of importance and will also provide experience of self-expression. The Primary organization and the Junior Sunday School provide the medium for greater understanding of life through mental and physical activity, which is conducive to sound mental health. The Primary activities give the young child a sense of his own importance, allow for selfexpression with both the body and with the mind. No one who has seen the look of satisfaction on the face of a child who has successfully performed in Primary, could deny the contribution of that experience in helping the child gain personal freedom of expression and a sense of personal worth.

        For the child whose mental and physical growth has been effective and natural, teen-age time is merely a continuation of health activity. The activities of the Church are helpful in this continuation, or it may also help a maladjusted person regain his sense of personal worth and achievement. The Mutual Improvement Associations are great organizations for the development and perpetuation of sound mental health. Properly regulated activity, which allows for sound personality growth, is the essential element of the MIA program. The MIA, the priesthood activities, and the Sunday School provide the teenager the opportunity to reach healthily toward adulthood without denial of the strivings of the adolescent. Through Church programs, the adolescent has ample opportunity for healthy association with members of the opposite sex that can lay the groundwork for sound courtship and eventual marriage.

        The Church's philosophy of the marriage relationship is sound for the furtherance of good mental health. The concept that marriage is a contract that should survive through the eternities is conducive to stability in the relationship. Petty differences indeed seem insignificant when one views his marriage as an eternal relationship which is advocated and condoned as a means of gaining salvation. An understanding of the Mormon concept of marriage can be conductive to making the marriage a healthy relationship.

        The process of maturing into middle age brings with it changes in interest, in abilities, and in attitudes. The Church program allows for activities in keeping with these changes in interest and abilities, where mature judgment and experience can now take the place of physical vigor or youthful appearance. Good mental health is the natural result of a home life which conforms to the Church ideals of family living.

        It is doubtful that any group of people in America has a program which can be so helpful in maintaining the mental health of the aged as can the program of the Church. The basic philosophy of the Church is such that one sees the declining years of life still as potentially useful years. The aged of the Church should still be busy "working out their salvation," and thus have little time for bemoaning the infirmities of age and rehashing the experiences of youth. With this healthy attitude toward life and, in particular, toward old age, there is activity which is really the essence of good mental health at any age level.

        The continued enthusiasm for life is readily seen in the facial expression of the older person who has attended the temple, where he has done the ordinance work for some ancestor who was not privileged to know of the Lord's plan of salvation in its fulness. Ward activities also call for the participation of the old as well as the young, and these activities help continue the sound mental health of the participants. The priesthood quorums arrange social activities and constructive enterprises where older people can meet and enjoy doing many things commensurate with the age and inclinations of the older groups. Old, as well as young, can find useful activity in the Relief Society organization. All of these things add up to a feeling of being useful and of being needed on the part of the older people. It is this feeling which accounts for the sparkle in the eye and the enthusiasm of the older person who has found an activity in the Church program. Thus, old age does not become a time of uselessness, of being unwanted, of being a social burden.

        Good mental health is an attribute and an achievement which begins early in life and continues until we die. The gospel of Jesus Christ provides the means whereby the route along life can be made pleasant, useful, productive, and thus free from the signs and symptoms of poor mental health.