Jacques Ferron: transcending solitudes

[Jacques Ferron] needs help. He is put under the care of a psychiatrist for his suicidal tendencies but, just as the space between doctor and patient has collapsed, so has the space between doctor and writer. He writes L'Exécution de Maski (The Execution of Maski). Maski is the name of Ferron's alter ego, both writer and doctor, whom he has decided to kill off. As they have become inseparable, the only logic is suicide. Maski half-derisively calls Ferron notaire (notary), a reference to the profession of Ferron's father. As Jack Gilbert suggests in his poem about Icarus, Failing and Flying,1 Ferron's "failure" should be seen as the end of his triumph rather than a repudiation of all he stood for. Ferron was a writer of imagination, humour and immense compassion, a courageous traveller, able to crisscross easily the worlds of medicine, literature and politics. Whether he engages us as a writer, doctor or polemicist, it is always to reaffirm our humanity and to restore human dignity where it has been lost. [Jean-Daniel Lafond]'s film is an excellent introduction to Ferron, the writer and the man. Informative and moving, it encourages us to discover for ourselves the enchantment of reading Ferron's contes. The film Le Cabinet du docteur Ferron was shown in Halifax on Apr. 25, 2006, as part of "Jacques Ferron, Physician-writer," a full-day symposium celebrating Ferron's writing and medical practice. The travelling exhibition was presented by La Société des Amis de Jacques Ferron in partnership with Dalhousie University's Medical Humanities Program and Department of French.