Reflections on the Origi and Aim of Nostalgia

The Task to which I address myself in this paper is to trace the origins of nostalgia in the universal, archetypal image of harmony or oneness; a state of archaic partial identity that has more recently been called pre-ambivalent. Also to trace what may be understood as an aim that is served by nostalgia; an important aspect of that aim is to be able increasingly to relate to other people in a way that allows their true separateness.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines nostalgia as a ‘form of melancholia caused by prolonged absence from one's home or country: a severe homesickness’. The word itself is a combination of two Greek words: nostos = return home, and algos = pain. It found its way into psychiatric writing around the beginning of the nineteenth century. In 1806, in his book Insanity, T. Arnold gives the name ‘Nostalgic Insanity’ to those whose intense and protracted nostalgia renders them unable to fend for themselves, thus needing asylum.

I am not referring to nostalgia in the way that one often hears the term used on radio or television as an enjoyable bitter-sweet experience to be indulged for an hour or an evening (although that is an attenuated version of the same thing); rather I am referring to the nostalgia that people do not want to feel, as when homesick in a foreign country. The word thus used denotes a qualitatively specific experience. I worked, over a period of ten years, in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Far East; in all those cultures and places people experience nostalgia, and so did I. Intuition and general reading also make me feel sure that it is a universally known experience, specific characteristics of which are unchanging. The intensity varies greatly from a fleeting sadness and yearning to an overwhelming craving that persists and profoundly interferes with the individual's attempts to cope with his present circumstances. The presentation of nostalgia as a