Rather than define premature termination in psychotherapy by arbitrary cutoffs of time or sessions, the present investigators utilized direct examination of therapists' reports to study ten patient variables and nine therapist variables. 718 cases of longterm psychotherapy in a private clinic were reviewed and 273 cases judged to be premature terminators. Compared to the general clinic patient population, premature terminators were found to differ significantly as to age, race, referral source, employment, type of payment, presenting complaint, and diagnosis (but not as to sex, residence, or marital status). For 27 psychotherapists, rates of premature termination were tabulated. Ph.D. psychologists were found to have significantly lower rates of premature termination than M.D.s or M.S.W.s. Therapists who had undergone personal therapy showed significantly lower rates than those who had no therapy. Therapists' defense style and life stresses did not relate significantly to rates of premature termination. Results were viewed in terms of motivational Portions of this paper are taken from M. G.'s Ph.D. thesis in clinical psychology, June 1982, University of Detroit. The authors would like to acknowledge the generous editorial assistance of Martin Mayman.Requests for reprints should be sent to Nancy Kulish,