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I am moved to be standing here today to say a few words in memory of René, as he had expressed the wish to his wife Danielle that I do. René was both a colleague at the Société psychanalytique de Montréal and a friend. Those of us gathered here in sorrow this afternoon wish to pay homage to René and thank him for his friendship. I will endeavour to speak directly and honestly, and try to convey our feelings as truly as I can.1
I came to know René during the six years we worked together on the Bulletin de la Société psychanalytique de Montréal. When I began working on the Bulletin in the fall of 1996, I invited René to collaborate. In addition to joining the editorial board, he agreed right away to be in charge of computer graphics—a considerable undertaking. From the fall of 1996 to the fall of 2002 we produced about twenty issues. That marked the beginning of a friendship that had its ups and downs, throughout which I saw how committed, multi-talented, and incredibly efficient René was, and which further confirmed to me his great sense of humanity.
There is a long tradition in literature of paying tribute to a friend who has passed: Achilles, Montaigne, and, more recently, Maurice Blanchot have explored the topic of friendship. Blanchot wrote,