Studies of mental patients have generally failed to identify simple, direct relationships between the intensity of patients' intergroup hatreds and either the severity or the particular diagnosis of their disorders. Yet, a closer look at underlying personality dynamics reveals interesting and important differences between extremely prejudiced and unprejudiced patients; for example, prejudiced patients usually display very little awareness of their own feelings and psychological problems and often suffer from vague anxieties. Studies of normal populations show prejudice correlates positively with symptoms of hypochondriasis, depression, psychopathic deviations, schizophrenia, and hypomania, and negative feelings of both defensiveness and hysteria. The principal disciplinary goal of social psychology is to combine individual and social levels of analysis in order to formulate meaningful models of social behavior. The proposed model for interpreting the impact of racism on mental health maintains that highly prejudiced people are not more prone to debilitating mental illness than others but that they less often possess positive mental health. Correlates of positive mental health are compared to what is known about personality attributes of highly prejudiced people, and the social and cultural context of prejudiced attitudes is discussed. Policy issues are raised regarding authoritarian and conformist personality bases for racist attitudes. Finally, the model contends that society does not need to "cure" bigots so much as it needs to erode the bases of institutional racism that condition the bigot's attitudes and behavior. 1 table.