Dérives proposes to immerse students in the psyche—possibly the most intimate of things—and to follow, almost day by day, people who are both fragile and resistant as they walk a tightrope. People for whom everything could change at any moment.

These accounts of investigations, all on the subject of drifting, are rooted in fact. Stories of setbacks and recoveries have been meticulously documented to form the psychiatric journeys of six people—four women and two men—from French-speaking Ontario.

Dérives is the brainchild of two minds—one travelling kilometre after kilometre to meet witnesses, the other buried in medical records scrutinizing individual files. Their approach is based on historical methods: searches, encounters and history.

This book will be of interest to researchers and students in sociology, social and cultural anthropology, psychology, social work, and history, but also to any inquisitive minds.