Ion Vianu’s Autobiographical Account.

About the (Dis)advantages of a Borderline Condition

Abstract

Ion Vianu (b.1934, Bucarest), Romanian psychiatrist and writer, son of a famous professor of comparative literature (Tudor Vianu), becomes recognized also for his positions against the communist authorities’ attempt of using psychiatry as a political weapon. In 1977 he chooses the path of exile, continuing his psychiatric research and practice in the Western world (Switzerland). Starting from the assumption that our scholar represents a paradigmatic example of what may be called an “in-between” identity, this paper intends to analyse the image(s) that the narrator gives of himself through a discourse which continuously tries to harmonize memory and forgetfulness, testimony and evidence, authenticity and rhetorical devices.