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Our experience of successfully treating three black women patients of widely differing psychopathology has demonstrated the feasibility of interracial psychoanalysis in these difficult times. Moreover, we feel that, at least with these three patients, traditional analysis was the treatment of choice.
A striking similarity in all three cases was the rapid onset and persistence of erotic and specifically masochistic feelings towards the analyst, which were discussed at length. Although the interracial colour difference served as a central focus of transference resistance, in only one case did it lead to a temporary interruption in the analysis. In this situation the early maternal rejection was explicitly verbalized as being due to the patient's unacceptable blackness. This suggests that a detailed knowledge of early traumata and of the specific association with colour in the patient's mind may be of considerable value in assessing the feasibility of an interracial analysis. A greater degree of self-scrutiny was necessary in order to deal with countertransference responses.