ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the cultural factors informing stereotypes of the black female body and sexuality, and provides a clinical example that hopefully demonstrates how the elements of culture become part of the psychoanalytic conversation in the case of a black American woman with a binge eating disorder. It discusses some background pertaining to it on the subjects of black female body image and eating disorders. The chapter explores some of these concepts in the clinical case discussion, and highlights how the analyst's open and curious attitude towards racial themes played a role in achieving healthy body image, regulated eating patterns, and a patient's appreciation for and greater understanding of her uniqueness. Andrea Hamilton believes that the myth that black women like their bodies more than other women may serve to exclude the complicated body image and sexual concerns that black women do experience.
