Most of us associate them with feelings of sadness and sometimes loss, but do they actually play a positive role in the human psyche? Medical News Today investigates. Essentially, it refers to the pain of being far away from home. Hofer identified nostalgia as a disease of the mind, and he described its mechanism as below:. Hence, from the living spirits entirely by its own momentum along uncommon routes through the untouched courses of the channels of the brain to the body, and by revisiting the oval tubes of the center brain, it is originated by arousing especially the uncommon and ever-present idea of the recalled native land in the mind.
Physician J. Scheuchzer, who lived and worked around the same time as Hofer, had a similar view of nostalgia.
However, he argued that it was not a result of an internal imbalance of the mind, but a condition influenced by external factors. For many centuries, doctors persisted in understanding nostalgia as a state of ill health that required treatment. However, views around its mechanisms and typology, as well as around which demographics it affected, kept shifting over the years. In a paper from , Profs Wildschut, Sedikides, and their colleagues note that, throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, doctors thought nostalgia only affected the Swiss, since they mostly observed it in the Swiss mercenary soldiers that lent their services to foreign armies.
In the early 19th century, however, physicians had begun to acknowledge it as a widespread condition that they saw as a form of melancholy or depression.
Throughout the 20th century, doctors kept changing their minds about the nature of nostalgia, though they mostly associated it with homesickness, an unhelpful psychological mechanism experienced by students and migrants unable to adapt to a new life away from home.
Symptoms included anxiety, sadness, and insomnia. By the midth century, psychodynamic approaches considered nostalgia a subconscious desire to return to an earlier life stage, and it was labeled as a repressive compulsive disorder. Soon thereafter, nostalgia was downgraded to a variant of depression, marked by loss and grief, though still equated with homesickness.
According to Profs Wildschut, Sedikides, and their colleagues, in the late 20th century, doctors and researchers started to differentiate between nostalgia and homesickness.
They suggest homesickness became conflated with mental health issues, such as separation anxiety, whereas nostalgia began to be associated with idealized images of childhood or past happy times.
Humans are an existential species. Nostalgia serves these existential endeavors. Here are three reasons for managers to bring this adaptive feature of human psychology into their organizations — and ways to do it. Social bonds are a central feature of nostalgia. Most nostalgic memories involve other people, and when individuals reflect on these memories, they feel more socially connected and supported.
Encouraging employees to share nostalgic stories with team members may help them build deeper connections because nostalgia orients people toward social goals. For example, in one set of studies my colleagues and I conducted, we found that having research participants spend a few minutes reflecting on a nostalgic memory compared to an ordinary autobiographical memory, like grocery shopping or driving to work increased their desire to pursue social goals such as forming deep relationships and made them more confident that they could successfully achieve those goals.
They also became more confident that they could overcome social conflicts. Research also finds that, when people are part of a group, nostalgia for an event shared within it makes people more committed to the group. Nostalgia brings the social self online. It increases social agency and directs that agency toward helping others and strengthening social and group bonds.
Given the importance of positive relationships and effective teams for both the health of individual employees and the organization, managers should explore ways to incorporate nostalgia into team-building activities, as well as social events like workplace celebrations and retreats.
For example, create a retro music playlist by asking employees to submit nostalgia-themed song requests. This will give employees of different ages and with different experiences the opportunity to revisit their own nostalgic memories, which energizes the desire to connect with others. It will also inspire them to share these memories with others, which helps build deeper connections and increase nostalgia in others.
As an existential resource, nostalgia helps people maintain and enhance meaning in the present — when they reflect on past meaningful experiences, they become motivated to prioritize meaning in the present. Managers can tap into this existential resource to help employees find meaning at work.
This may be particularly useful for those experiencing burnout. And if you need some help on your own making it to your workout class, learn the 11 Ways Smart People Motivate Themselves to Go to the Gym.
As philosopher George Santayana once said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In the face of life's major changes, it can prove difficult to stay true to yourself.
But holding on to sentimental remembrances allows us to remember who we are through these changes, and never lose sight of what's really important. For example: Imagine you've just started a new job and you're starting to get a little too caught up in the competitive environment.
But after catching a whiff of something that reminds you of your childhood say, a piece of apple pie , you're suddenly brought back to mornings in the kitchen with grandma and reminded of the things that truly matter. When you're feeling down about yourself and your relationships, nostalgia is there to comfort you and remind you of your place in the world. As Routledge wrote in his book, Nostalgia: A Psychological Resource : "Nostalgia provides people an opportunity to reassure themselves that they have had interpersonal successes and that they are loved and valued by others.
It makes people feel loved, supported, and socially competent. Nostalgia is the ultimate fountain of youth. As you age, just thinking about times when you were younger and healthier can liven you up and make you feel more physically fit. To discover more amazing secrets about living your best life, click here to sign up for our FREE daily newsletter! All Rights Reserved. Open side menu button. Why we keep calm and wistfully think back on. By Morgan Greenwald July 16, Read This Next. Latest News.
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