Gilles Chagnon was born in Saint-Hyacinthe, Montérégie, where he grew up. He began his studies in literature at the University of Montréal before switching to medicine, ultimately completing his residency in psychiatry. As a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, he also trained future clinicians as a clinical professor at both the University of Montreal and the University of Sherbrooke.
For Gilles Chagnon, literature and writing are privilege paths to understanding the human mind. Through his work, he has published various literary and psychoanalytical texts, including stories and essays that explore psychoanalysis and art. His creative approach emphasizes the importance of memory and reminiscence. He believes that the ceaseless reorganization of memory enables each individual to shape his or her singularity and embrace his or her inner complexity.This belief connects his work as both a psychoanalyst and a writer.
MY MOTHER, MY LOVE, MY CHILD, translated by the author and Ann Leduc, Amazon KDP, 2025
Pauline Daigle is about to die. Her heart gives out. She is about to leave her body and all she has loved. Her son is at her side. This story recounts the demanding and unique moments of a mother’s accompaniment by her son, and the mourning process that follows, in which writing becomes a form of resistance to death.
Mourning has its own temporality, and temporarily removes the survivor from the outside world. The narrative is constructed in loops, following the movement of memory as it clings to the irreversible moments of the dying process, in order to inscribe them before they fade into oblivion. He also revisits his childhood and what he knows of this complex, passionate woman.
Through his own singular experience of loss, the author connects with a universal experience.
Far from being sad, it’s a testimony about the strength of memory and love. Mourning as the renewal of life.
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