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Six patients were studied, three with 'psychosomatic' disease and three with neurosis. Special attention was paid to the patients' 'dependence upon the therapist'. Each patient had a month's vacation from the therapist. It is not clear whether the vacations were enforced as an experimental design or whether they occurred spontaneously. The method of dealing with the situation is not described but a brief case history and description of the reactions of the six patients are given. Each patient improved under psychotherapeutic care, each had a return of symptoms on separation from the therapist, and each improved again on resumption of therapy. Brewster believes that these reactions on separation bore symptomatic resemblance to normal grief, i.e., irritability, feelings of loss, preoccupation with the image of the missing therapist, inability to initiate and maintain useful conduct. There were also instances of incapacitating hostility and of schizophreniclike withdrawal. The reactions were more severe in the three patients with 'psychosomatic' disease. The separation was considered to be an interruption of the transference feelings for the therapist. Brewster seems to believe that these reactions may be subsumed under the heading of grief and separation reaction but the differentiation is that grief refers to a permanent loss, while separation refers to a temporary interruption of an interpersonal relationship having the promise of restoration.