Intensive psychotherapy with a woman subject to recurrent urinary retention revealed that attitudes of parent figures toward the patient's urogenital functions had been highly pathological. These attitudes and the patient's reactions to them seemed to be primary and specific etiological factors. By using this knowledge, predictions could be made during therapy of approaching episodes of urinary retention. No generalizations are made about the psychological concomitants of unexplained urinary retention, but it is suggested that additional studies of this sort might be of value for understanding such cases.