The mental attitudes of professors engaged in teaching courses in teacher education were studied, based on a 3-year longitudinal survey (1976-1978). A mental health Self-Rating Scale was administered to 31,857 professors at 656 colleges and universities. The professors appeared to be stable in their judgments for each of the 3 years studied. Based on the findings, the following conclusions are made: about one-fourth of the nation's professors of education may be classified as neurotic; an estimated one-fourth may be labelled as having character disorders; an estimated one-fourth may be regarded as socially maladjusted; about one-eighth may be called regressionists since they appear to thrive and enjoy doing the things they did years ago; one-eighth may share mental or emotional disturbances from time to time, and their conditions rarely call for hospital care or a visit to the psychiatrist. It is suggested that students need to be surrounded with challenge, success, respect, and affection. It is recommended that higher education institutions need to take steps to address the problem of mental health problems among teacher education faculty, including such measures as adopting an emotional screening test for prospective faculty. The questionnaire is included. (SW)