History of Psychology

2013, Vol. 16, No. 3, 165176

2013 American Psychological Association

1093-4510/13/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0032427

NOSTALGIA: The Bittersweet History of a Psychological Concept

Krystine Irene Batcho

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Le Moyne College
The concept of nostalgia has changed substantially both denotatively and connotatively
over the span of its 300-year history. This article traces the evolution of the concept from
its origins as a medical disease to its contemporary understanding as a psychological
construct. The difficulty of tracing a construct through history is highlighted. Attention is
paid to roles played first by the medical context, and then by the psychiatric, psychoanalytic,
and psychological approaches. Emphasis is given to shifts in the designation of nostalgic
valence from bitter to sweet to bittersweet, and the processes of semantic drift and
depathologization are explored. Because the sense of nostalgia was constructed and reconstructed within social, cultural, and historical contexts, its meaning changed along with the
words used to describe and connect it to other entities. Nostalgias past illustrates the
influence of language, social-cultural context, and discipline perspectives on how a construct is defined, researched, and applied.
Keywords: history of nostalgia, evolution of a construct, emotion, denotative and connotative
meaning

Ebbinghaus paradoxical description of psychology as having a long past but only a short
history can be borrowed to capture the essence
of nostalgia as a psychological concept (Ebbinghaus, 1908, p. 3). Although the term nostalgia was coined as a medical construct in 1688
(Hofer, 1688/1934), its history as a psychological concept is only a century old. Many theorists assume that nostalgia is a powerful sentiment that has been part of human experience
since long before it was assigned a name. However, the working assumption that concepts
represent enduring natural entities has been contested by theorists who have argued that categories are historically constructed and reconstructed (Danziger, 1997; Richards, 1989, 2010;
Smith, 2005). Nostalgia illustrates how a construct is framed within a social-historical context and evolves as that context changes.
Simple dictionary definitions of nostalgia as
a bittersweet longing for the past and as
homesickness (The American Heritage Dictionary, 1994, p. 569) mask its dramatic seman-

tic evolution since the word was coined and the

complexity of its current understanding as a
psychological construct. This article traces the
history of the construct in a search for the roots
of the conflicting facets within present theoretical formulations. The analysis highlights methodological and conceptual issues inherent in
distinguishing between concept and language,
retrospective interpretation and the possibility
of an enduring experiential phenomenon.
Nostalgia as a Physical Disease:
Medical Origins
The bitter side of nostalgia dominated the
first phase of the evolution of the term as it
originated as a diagnostic label. In coining the
word nostalgia Hofer explained in his medical dissertation1 that it is composed of two

This article was published Online First May 6, 2013.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Krystine Irene Batcho, Department of Psychology, Le Moyne College, 1419 Salt Springs Road, Syracuse,
NY 13214. E-mail: batcho@lemoyne.edu

1
Although several authors date Hofers dissertation in
1678, the actual date, 1688 appears on the title p. of the
dissertation as reproduced in Anspachs, 1934 translation.
Although the origin of the error is unclear, several of the
authors using the 1678 date cite Werman (H. Kaplan, 1987)
or McCanns, 1941 literature review (Kleiner, 1970; Rosen,
1975; Werman, 1977). McCann referenced secondary
sources for the dissertation, but did not list the dissertation
itself or Anspachs translation among his references. Anspach reports Hofers birth in Muhlhausen on April 28, 1669,
which would make him only 9 years old in 1678.

165

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BATCHO

sounds, the one of which is Nostos, return to the

native land; the other, Algos, signifies suffering
or grief; so that thus far it is possible from the
force of the sound Nostalgia to define the sad
mood originating from the desire for the return
to ones native land (1688/1934, p. 381). He
compared his term derived from Greek components to the German word Heimweh, which
denotes the grief for the lost charm of the
Native Land or homesickness, and to the
French term maladie du pays (which translates literally to disease of the native land).
He stated that he would be equally satisfied
with the label philopatridomania, denoting a
spirit perturbed against holding fast to their
native land from any cause whatsoever (denoting) return (p. 381).
For homesickness to be understood properly,
Hofer argued that it was necessary to apply a
name and that the one he invented defined the
thing to be explained. He transformed homesickness into a medical construct by incorporating it into the framework of assumptions and
concepts that dominated the medicine of his
time. Based primarily upon cases among Swiss
troops serving in France, Hofer catalogued
symptoms including sadness, insomnia, fever,
weakness, loss of appetite, and cardiac palpitations (Havlena & Holak, 1991; Rosen, 1975).
His nerve theory posited that persistent thoughts
of home caused the vital spirits to surge constantly in the part of the brain where the desired
images are located, creating a path in which
they can move of their own accord (Hofer,
1688/1934). Focused entirely upon images of
the past, the vital spirits are not available for
other functions, including life-sustaining processes (1688/1934).2 Although Hofer proposed
a physical mechanism for the bodily symptoms,
he attributed the cause of nostalgia to recurring
thoughts and memories of home.
Much of the early interest in nostalgia was
motivated by the concern for optimal performance of military resources during European
conflicts well into the 18th century (Rosen,
1975). The association with Swiss soldiers was
so strong that some writers referred to nostalgia
as Schweizerkrankheit (Jackson, 1986). Fearing
that this association would make the Swiss soldier appear weak, the Swiss physician
Scheuchzer proposed in 1705 that nostalgia results from an increase in atmospheric pressure
when the Swiss descend from the mountains

(Rosen, 1975). However, Blumenbach pointed

out that Swiss from the mountainous regions
were rarely afflicted, and Zimmerman, another
Swiss physician, noted nostalgia among British,
Scottish, and French troops (Jackson, 1986, pp.
375376).
In the United States, Union doctors reported
nostalgia symptoms ranging from sadness to
cerebral derangement among over 2,500 soldiers during the first 2 years of the Civil War
(Matt, 2007). Ultimately, attempts to explain
nostalgia in terms of bodily abnormalities did
not succeed (Auenbrugger, 1761/1824, XXVII,
2; Laennec, 1819/1829). In 1838, surgeon John
Collins Warrens diagnosed a woman as suffering from nostalgia, an unusual longing for the
native country (De Rham, 1841, pp. 115116,
124; Martien, 1840, p. 246; Sanchez & Brown,
1994). Not able to find any bodily disease, he
testified that her debility proceeded from her
mind (Rutledge, 1997). Physicians had come to
view nostalgia as a mental disease that manifested in physical symptoms, but the development of a field of specialists in the diagnosis and
treatment of mental disorders was still in its
infancy (Anderson, 2010; Clarke, 2007).
Whereas Hofers disease model concentrated
attention on symptoms, prognosis, and treatments, prior to Hofer, homesickness was presumed to be the norm, even admirable or noble.
For example, in Homers Odyssey, neither lifethreatening challenges nor the prospect of remaining with a goddess could dissuade the
mythical Odysseus from returning home
(Homer, trans. 1991, Book IX). Similarly, the
intensity of yearning for their homeland during
the Israelites forced exile following the fall of
Jerusalem is clear in Psalm 137:5 6 (New
American Standard Bible): If I forget you, O
Jerusalem, may my right hand forget her skill.
May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if
I do not remember you.
2
Two elements of Hofers theory reappear in more sophisticated forms in modern psychological theory. For example, Hebbs (1949) explanation of psychological disorders in terms of the disorganization of cell assemblies is
reminiscent of Hofers notion of a path laid down by reverberating travel of the vital spirits. Similarly, Hofers proposal that mental events can result in structural or physical
changes is reflected in modern two-stage theories of disorders such as depression, amnesia, and anorexia.

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NOSTALGIA: THE BITTERSWEET HISTORY

Within the political context of exile, homesickness is part of a set of concepts of loyalty
and allegiance to ones social group and ideology. Assimilation into the foreign country represents abandonment of ones native beliefs and
identity and acceptance of those of the oppressor. Similarly, Odysseus journey is a temporary separation from those he loves and the
social context to which he owes allegiance. For
Odysseus, choosing to remain in one of the
pleasant settings of his adventurous itinerary
would constitute a betrayal of his people, family
commitments, and social identity.
Whereas homesickness prevents attachment
to a foreign social setting, the medical context
encouraged efforts to prevent and cure homesickness. Such contrasts illustrate the potential
for error in understanding a construct in the past
by applying contemporary ideology and methods. Presuming the medical approach to be
superior, Hofer failed to appreciate the bias
imposed by the military cases he examined.
Military urgency during wartime promoted the
identification, or invention, of a disease so that
effective treatment could be developed. From
the political imperialist perspective, attachment
to home is not an admirable value if it interferes
with performance far from home.
From Physical to Mental Illness:
The Role of Psychiatry
With advances in anatomy and physiology,
germ theory, and instrumentation, distinctions
developed between two categories of phenomena. As medicine became defined by its methods and resultant discoveries, instances were
categorized as medical when the available
methods were applicable. When those methods
were not easily applied, instances could be either reconstructed to fit or relegated to the developing category of mental illnesses.
During the 19th century, the study and treatment of mental illness became the province of
psychiatrists, referred to then as alienists (Hilgard, 1987). Nostalgia received little and shortlived attention in psychiatry. In 1892, Tuke
wrote that, Nostalgia always represents a combination of psychological and bodily disturbances, and for this reason it must always be
defined as a disease (Tuke, 1892, p. 858).
Extending this thinking to forensic applications,
Tuke argued that by suspending the free deter-

167

mination of will, nostalgia can cause certain

acts and crimes which bear the character of
impulsive actions, and can frequently be the
motive to incendiarism, infanticide, and suicide (1892, p. 859).
With the emphasis on sadness, theorists classified nostalgia as a form of melancholia.
Griesinger observed, home-sickness . . . is a
mournful disposition of spirit suggested by external circumstances . . . home-sickness ought
in foro to be regarded as a mental affection only
when it presents the usual signs of insanity
(Griesinger, 1867/1965, pp. 245246). By the
end of the 19th century, refinements in classification, together with industrialization, a decline
in military mobilization, and greater social mobility because of improved means of transportation, contributed to the eventual disappearance of nostalgia as a separate disorder.
Conflict and the Bittersweet: The Impact of
the Psychoanalytic Movement
During the first half of the 20th century,
nostalgia had lost its place of interest in psychiatry, and the psychoanalytic movement contributed to shifting nostalgia into the developing
discipline of psychology. Although nostalgia is
not indexed in Freuds writings, Freuds approach profoundly affected conceptualizations
of nostalgia. Most notably, the centrality of
early experience, symbolism, and conflict influenced 20th-century theories of nostalgia (see
especially Freuds Screen Memories, 1899/
1968c, On Transience, 1916/1968b, and
Mourning and Melancholia, 1917/1968a). As
summarized by H. Kaplan (1987, p. 466), In a
psychoanalytic context, the meaning of nostalgia changes to become a variant of depression,
an acute yearning for a union with the preoedipal mother, a saddening farewell to childhood, a
defense against mourning, or a longing for a
past forever lost. According to Kleiner (1970,
p. 17), All authors agree on the importance of
the preoedipal mother in the emotional development of nostalgics.
Neumann (1949/1971, p. 16) argued that nostalgia is a reaction to the potential alienation of
individuation, being oneself is still a wearisome and painful experience. Peters (1985)
proposed that many cases of nostalgia manifest
unresolved problems in oneness/separation and
omnipotence/helplessness, with nostalgia pro-

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168

BATCHO

viding the motivation to persist in the grueling

work of individuation (p. 145). He characterized nostalgia as a yearning that ranges in intensity from a fleeting sadness to an overwhelming craving that persists and profoundly
interferes with the individuals attempts to cope
with his present circumstances (p. 135).
Whereas medical theorists had designated the
home as the object of yearning in nostalgia, the
psychoanalytic emphasis on symbolism facilitated the generalization beyond spatial location.
Peters (1985) assumed that one can be nostalgic
for any object since objects serve as symbols,
and Kulish (1989) and Bassin (1993) extended
the meaning of nostalgia to denote an incomplete form of mourning for an idealized past.
In sharp contrast to the original emphasis on
melancholy, the psychoanalytic perspective
made conflicting emotions critical to the essence of nostalgia (e.g., Kaplan, 1987; Werman,
1977). Kleiner (1970) distinguished the nostalgic individual from the homesick, the sentimental, and the romantic by nostalgias peculiar
combination of sadness and pleasant reminiscing (p. 15), and identified the bittersweet quality of nostalgia as its unique defining feature (p.
29). He observed that the homesick feel only
pain, the sentimental excessive emotion, and the
romantic only the joy of fantasy and idealization. Kaplan (1987) distinguished nostalgia
from depression and argued that for nostalgia to
be normal it must contain both pleasurable and
depressive affect. Many psychoanalytic theorists agree with Wermans characterization of
nostalgia as bittersweet, indicating a wistful
pleasure, a joy tinged with sadness (Werman,
1977, p. 393; Bassin, 1993; CastelnuovoTedesco, 1980; Hertz, 1990; Kaplan, 1987; Peters, 1985). Citing Mahlers notion of the ambivalently loved mother after separation,
Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1980, p. 122) explained
the genesis of nostalgias bittersweet character:
It is sweet because the original object or event
gave pleasure and because the pleasure is enhanced through idealization. It is bitter not only
because it cannot be made to come back but also
because, even in its original setting, it contained
conflict and disappointment.
The focus on conflict led theorists to propose
nostalgias role in dealing with loss and transition. Kaplan (1984, p. 150) explained: The
depressive moods, grief reactions, and profound
anxiety states so typical of adolescence are

manifestations of the inner struggle to relinquish the past and at the same time never let it
go. As an expression of this struggle a new,
bittersweet emotion comes into existence. During adolescence the child can for the first time
experience nostalgia for the lost past and a
sense of the irreversibility of time. What has
once been is gone. It cannot be brought back
except in memory. L. Kaplan argued that romanticizing the infantile past helps the adolescent cope with the difficulties of her present by
instilling a sense of worthiness based upon
memories of having been an infant or child
who was once perfect and absolutely adored
(p. 151). In such a way, nostalgia takes the
sting out of the sense of loss . . . Time is irreversible, but the goodness that was serves as
incentive for aspiration (p. 151).
The Depathologizing of Nostalgia:
Origins as a Psychological Construct
The growth of psychology as an experimental
science during the 20th century contributed definitional precision and objective methodology
to the empirical investigation of nostalgia. As
early as 1898, Kline studied nostalgia within the
framework of genetic psychology made popular
by interest in evolutionary theory (Hilgard,
1987). Kline (1898, p. 6) explained, The genetic psychologist has taken his cue from the
biologists, and accordingly . . . investigates both
the causes and the processes in its development
until it reaches conditions found in the adult
form. Applying a quantitative approach, Kline
explored nostalgia (homesickness) as a function
of age, gender, context, psychical effects, and
bodily phenomena (p. 78). He concluded that
nostalgia is a reaction to stimuli, primarily, loss
of the familiar, presence of the new or strange,
and secondarily, restricted liberty and significant lifestyle change. Kline likened nostalgia to
seasickness with the nostalgic having lost his
psychical orientation analogous to the seasick
patient having lost his land sense of equilibrium
(p. 80).
The introduction of survey techniques reflected the early impact of scientific concepts
such as operational definitions on the study of
nostalgia. Although his comparison to seasickness shows that Kline had not totally abandoned
the disease model, he had shifted nostalgia to a
psychological process, the reaction to particular

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NOSTALGIA: THE BITTERSWEET HISTORY

types of stimuli. Equally important was Klines

early allusion to nostalgia as a personality type.
Faithful to its title, The migratory impulse versus love of home, 80 of the 81 pages of Klines
article are devoted to the migratory impulse
and the love of home. In the concluding paragraphs, however, Kline adopts the perspective
of personality theorist and contrasts the migrant who is cosmopolitan, has manifold interests, and finds profitable objects and kindred
spirits in a variety of situations with the lover
of home who is provincial, plodding and
timid, and whose interests are identified with
the conservative and microscopic affairs of society (pp. 80 81). The traits identified as characteristic of the lover of home hint at the much
later transfer of meaning to social/historical
nostalgia (for discussions of historical nostalgia
see Holbrook, 1993; Lears, 1998; Stern, 1992).3
It is easy to recognize the influence of Klines
mentor, G. Stanley Hall. Hall (1904) placed
nostalgia within an evolutionary and developmental framework. Identifying adolescence as a
period of transition, Hall cited a consensus
among authors that adolescents are especially
predisposed to nostalgia. Indicative of a substantial change in the way nostalgia was framed,
Hall included the topic in his chapter titled,
Social instincts and institutions. The developmental framework shifted the emphasis away
from the individual and disease to basic process
and normal development. This conceptual transition had progressed further by 1933. Ruml
(1933) defined nostalgia as a pathological condition, but he added the notion of nostalgic
sentiment to extend the concept beyond homesickness to normal processes: Nostalgic sentiments are associated not only with place, but
also with persons, time, and even abstract symbols (p. 656). As a normal process, nostalgic
sentiments could be seen as serving a purpose.
Just as Hall discussed nostalgia in the context of
social institutions, Ruml asserted that nostalgia
strengthens patriotism, class stability, and the
family. The disengagement of nostalgic sentiments from pathology is clear in Rumls proposal of their involvement in aesthetic and religious experience.
Rumls suggestion that nostalgia plays a role
in social and personal processes advanced an
important transition in the scholarly approach to
nostalgia. Methodologically, the preoccupation
with clinical case histories declined with grow-

169

ing interest in methods being developed in experimental psychology. The new meaning laid
the logical foundation for pursuing beneficial
functions of nostalgia. As a normal universal
phenomenon, nostalgia must serve some psychological or social purpose.
McCann (1941) collected data from college
students, and important differences between the
collegiate and the military contexts contributed
to the semantic drift toward a broader meaning.
As modern transportation made geographical
separation less traumatic and lessened isolation
and cultural differences, the attachment of the
concept of home to a specific place was weakened. Although McCann still defined nostalgia
as homesickness in his 1941 review of the literature, he also anticipated the broader use of
the term. McCann recognized that the meaning
of the concept home varies from individual to
individual and also is relative to time and place
(p. 174), and he cited reports of nostalgia experienced by people at home after others had gone
away. In McCanns view, as the frustration of
an intense emotional desire to return home, nostalgia is really no different than the emotional
desire for another type of object, such as another person either living (i.e., lovesickness) or
dead (i.e., grief). McCanns recognition of the
subjectivity of the concept home coincided with
the broadening of the meaning of nostalgia.
The contrast between McCanns view in
1941 and Martins in 1954 is remarkable. McCann argued that to guard against adult homesickness, during the developmental years everything be done to prevent a strong emotional
fixation or attachment to the home situation or
to any item in it (p. 181). According to McCann, treatment is anything that tends to reduce the individuals emotional fixation to his
home (p. 181). Within a framework of biological rhythms, Martin predicted: A return
to humanism will bring with it a healthy respect for nostalgia and an encouragement of
the nostalgic tendencies (1954, p. 103).
Rather than defining nostalgia as a disease to
be prevented and treated, theorists began to
3

The 1993 Addition to the Oxford English Dictionary

(Simpson & Weiner, 1933) provides the additional meaning
to the entry for nostalgia Cause for nostalgia . . . freq. as a
collective term for objects which evoke a former era, esp.
remembered past, and it offers examples of such a use as
early as 1976.

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BATCHO

view nostalgia as an adaptive response to

stress or change, a fundamental component of
human experience, or a positive universal
emotion. By 1979, Davis argued that only a
minority of speakers would consider nostalgia
to be homesickness per se. He reported that
several dozen college students he surveyed
associated words such as warm, old times,
childhood, and yearning with the term nostalgia much more frequently than they did
homesickness (p. 4). In 1987, H. Kaplan defined nostalgia as warm feelings about the
past, a past that is imbued with happy memories, pleasures, and joys and identified it as
a universal affect that results in a heightened
mental state, an enhancing, uplifting mood
related to particular memories of the past.
(p. 465).
The more positive approach to nostalgia
emerging during the second half of the 20th
century influenced both theoretical and applied
research. Cognitive theorists began investigating the role of nostalgia in memory and proposed nostalgia as an appropriate phenomenon
for the study of the interaction between cognitive and affective processes (Batcho, 1995,
1998; Cavanaugh, 1989; Ross, 1991). Cavanaugh (1989) proposed the empirical study of
nostalgia as an opportunity to integrate our understanding of the relationship between emotion
and memory in everyday life with what we have
learned about personality development from
empirical work and psychoanalytic theory. Cavanaugh argued that, nostalgia represents a
cognitive attempt to recapture a time when life
was good, safe, secure, and contented (p. 603).
He proposed that, as a cognitive-emotional
event, nostalgia is one of the ways that one
develops and maintains identity and reminiscence is the primary means by which one
maintains relationships with old parts of the self
and by which one measures personal change
over time (p. 603).
Applying a cognitive approach, Batcho
(1995) introduced a survey measure of nostalgia, defined as missing aspects of ones personal
past, and explored the relationship between nostalgia and memory and personality. Batcho concluded: The largely negative picture of a fearful, unhappy, dependent person which had
dominated many years of nostalgia theory is
replaced by a more positive image of an individual with the capacity to feel intensely and for

whom other people are a high priority (1998,

p. 430).
From a sociological perspective, Davis
(1979) conceptualized nostalgia as an attempt to
adapt to discontinuity in life and noted that
older people are especially likely to be nostalgic. Similarly, Cavanaugh (1989, p. 604) cited a
growing suspicion among researchers that
memory is more closely linked to affect in older
than in younger adults. Appearing in Educational Gerontology, Cavanaughs article on everyday memory aging reflected the applied interest emerging in clinical studies of nostalgia.
Whereas the military needs of previous centuries framed nostalgia as an illness to be treated,
the 20th-century focus on adaptive functions
introduced nostalgia as the therapy rather than
as the problem.
Hertz researched the ability of aging survivors of the Holocaust to cope with the extreme
trauma they had suffered (1990). Having observed more frequent reminiscences and nostalgic longings with advancing age, Hertz viewed
nostalgia as an adaptive mechanism used to
cope with major challenges that confront the
elderly. Advocating clinical studies to complement laboratory research, Mills and Coleman
(1994) explored the role of nostalgic reminiscence as a therapeutic strategy among sufferers
of dementia in a psychogeriatric setting. They
concluded that nostalgia can help maintain or
restore a sense of self-identity by reweaving
the broken threads of life history (p. 215) and
can enhance personhood by strengthening the
individuals connections to others.
The emergence of clinical work with nostalgic reminiscence illustrates how the practice of
a discipline is shaped by the theoretical constructions available at the time, and how that
practice in turn influences the further development of the constructs. The work of clinicians
such as Hertz and Mills and Coleman exemplifies the shift of nostalgia from the object of
medical treatment to that of treatment for other
conditions in need of amelioration. By the end
of the 20th century, psychological stress,
whether induced by present conditions or memories of past events, had become a medical
entity in its own right. Nostalgia had joined the
developing class of psychological constructs
being added to the arsenal of medical treatments, most notably the growing list of psychoactive pharmaceuticals.

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NOSTALGIA: THE BITTERSWEET HISTORY

However, the vestiges of nostalgias pathological past are still apparent in disagreements
about the therapeutic value of nostalgia and the
possibility of pathological forms of nostalgia.
For example, Zinchenko (2011) reported psychosomatic symptoms in recent refugees without prior psychiatric history as a result of a
malignant form of nostalgia. Zinchenko argues
that maladaptive nostalgia involves repetitive
reconstructions of bittersweet memories rather
than the creative reconstruction of past experiences. While reconnecting them with the past,
these involuntary reminiscences were obstacles
to learning new material, prevented healthy adaptation to their present reality, and threatened
their psychological well-being.
The survival of negative alongside more
recent positive conceptualizations illustrates
the influence of a medical context. Within the
medical setting, nostalgia is examined with
terminology such as symptoms, patients, malignant, and maladaptive. The medical context revisits taxonomic questions of whether
nostalgia is essentially a pathological entity,
whether there are bitter and sweet forms of
nostalgia, or whether bitter and sweet dimensions are intrinsic to nostalgia. Nostalgia is
analyzed quite differently from a nonmedical
perspective. The benefits of nostalgia were
recounted by two Holocaust survivors who
visited their homeland with their daughter
(Hirsch & Spitzer, 2002). Reminiscence and
narration enabled them to reconnect with both
the pleasurable and the traumatic in the past
and to help their daughter in her search for
meaning as a child of exiles. Rather than
relying on medical terms to communicate
complexities of their experience, the authors
introduced qualifiers to distinguish types of
nostalgia. Conflicting feelings aroused by remembering joy and horror in the past are
referred to as ambivalent nostalgia, and the
daughters yearning to connect with a past
experienced only second-hand through her
parents memories as rootless nostalgia.
Hirsch and Spitzer (p. 274) concluded that the
journey engendered an encounter between
generations, between past and present, between nostalgic and traumatic memory.
By the 1990s, the designation of bittersweet
as the distinctive feature of nostalgic affect had
become typical. Some theorists gave cursory
credit to psychoanalytic authors (Cavanaugh,

171

1989; Stern, 1992), while others cited empirical

data or simply defined nostalgia as a bittersweet
emotion (Batcho, 1998; Havlena & Holak,
1991; Mills & Coleman, 1994). Differences between technical and nontechnical uses contributed to a lack of unanimity. Davis suggested
that until well into the 1950s nostalgia was
regarded as a fancy word, with use confined
mostly to psychiatrists, psychologists, and a few
lay speakers. Davis maintained that the designation of nostalgic affect as bittersweet in vernacular use had become only occasional, with
the recognition of the bitter side of nostalgia
having become rare. He argued, Nostalgic feeling is almost never infused with those sentiments we commonly think of as negative, and
suggested that the component of sadness
serves only to heighten the quality of recaptured
joy (1979, p. 14). What remains unclear is the
extent to which observations such as Davis are
germane to the use of the term as a label rather
than to the construct of nostalgia. Had the term
nostalgic been coopted to designate the warm
fuzzy feeling associated with sentimental remembrances of youthful joys?
Referential Meaning
Psychologys drive to define itself as an empirical science increasingly strengthened the demand for definitional clarity. Words, essential
to thought and communication, can also get in
the way, distract, or confuse the understanding
of a construct. As the sense of an experience is
constructed within a social, cultural, historical
context, its meaning changes with the words
used to label, describe and interconnect it to
other related entities. Confusion of different
constructs designated by the same term has continued to obstruct progress in empirical research
on nostalgia. In addition to the longstanding
confounding of varying notions of homesickness and longing for the past, the past is itself
a construct that has different meanings and associations within the context of nostalgia. For
example, Stern (1992) articulated a distinction
between two types of nostalgia historical, the
desire to return to a distant historical period
perceived as superior to the present, and personal, which idealizes the personally remembered past. Arguments that historical nostalgia
impedes social, cultural or technological progress by encouraging reactionary opinions and

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BATCHO

choices should not be confused with arguments

that personal nostalgia can trap an individual in
his or her own past. The term nostalgia has been
applied indiscriminately also to the sentiment as
a mood state and to nostalgia proneness as a
personality trait. The need for conceptual clarity
as a prerequisite for consensus has become an
impetus for the development of methods for the
empirical investigation of the characteristics,
triggers, correlates and functions of nostalgia
(Barrett et al., 2010; Bassett, 2006; Batcho,
1995, 1998, 2007; Batcho, DaRin, Nave, &
Yaworsky, 2008; Batcho, Nave, & DaRin,
2011; Best & Nelson, 1985; Godbole, Shehryar,
& Hunt, 2006; Hart et al., 2011; Iyer & Jetten,
2011; Juhl, Routledge, Arndt, Sedikides, &
Wildschut, 2010; Leboe & Ansons, 2006;
Muehling & Pascal, 2011; Nawas & Platt, 1965;
Routledge, Arndt, Sedikides, & Wildschut,
2008; Wildschut, Sedikides, Arndt, & Routledge, 2006; Wildschut, Sedikides, Routledge,
Arndt, & Cordaro, 2010; Zhou, Sedikides,
Wildschut, & Gao, 2008).
As the referential meaning of nostalgia
shifted away from homesickness, questions
emerged about the connections between them.
Can homesickness be thought of as a specific
case of nostalgia, in that there are warm feelings
toward, longing for, and memories of home?
Or, is missing home independent of feelings
toward the past? Gibrans poetic simile expresses the compelling parallel between both
forms of longing: An old man likes to return in
memory to the days of his youth like a stranger
who longs to go back to his own country
(Gibran, 1912/1995, p. 352). However, within
the longing of homesickness, home is experienced as present, not past. The two constructs
can coexist or be interrelated, and the language
that allows such possibilities to be considered
suggests that they are two constructs, not one.
Naming can have profound implications. In
1933, reacting to atrocities such as the Armenian massacre, Raphael Lemkin proposed that
extermination directed against ethnic, religious
or social collectives be deemed an international
crime (Lemkin, 1933). Arguing that New conceptions require new terms, Lemkin (1944)
coined the term genocide: This new word,
coined by the author to denote an old practice in
its modern development, is made from the ancient Greek word genos (race, tribe) and the
Latin cide (killing), thus corresponding in its

formation to such words as tyrannicide, homocide, infanticide, and so forth (p. 79). The
initial social and political impact of the label
became evident as it was applied in the 1945
indictment of war criminals (International Military Tribunal, 1945). With the adoption of Resolution 260, the United Nations General Assembly defined genocide as an international crime
and established policy for the prevention and
punishment of acts of genocide (G.A. Res.
260[III], Dec. 9, 1948).
While a label can facilitate thought and action, it can also limit thought and behaviors.
Ignatieff (2001) argued that the term genocide is
deliberately not applied when needed most in
order to avoid the legal and political ramifications, while those who use the word often banalize it into a validation of every kind of victimhood (p. 27). Short (2010) advocated an
expansion of the use of genocide beyond mass
killing to include culturally destructive processes that do not entail direct physical killing.
By choosing cide in constructing his label, perhaps Lemkin contributed to the narrow understanding of genocide as physical killing.
Similarly, Hofers choice of the suffix algia
deliberately incorporated nostalgia into the
medical ideology of his time and changed
prescribed medical, social, and even legal behaviors with respect to homesickness. Where
longing for home was once admired as the embodiment of faithfulness, love for family, and
commitment to a social community, it became a
disease to be prevented and cured. Similarly,
conceptualizations of longing for a lost past
changed as a result of the application of the
label nostalgia. Subsumed within the web of
attributes that constituted nostalgia, longing for
the past acquired vestiges of medical, psychiatric, and psychoanalytic thought. Home and the
past do not share an obvious, necessary connection. Changes in mobility shifted the notion of
home such that the geographical referent became less central and birthplace, family, people,
lifestyle, language and all that constitutes culture and allegiance to it became more integral.
Ease of transportation meant that people could
feel free to leave the place of their birth with the
expectation that return would be as simple.
However, the new construct of home revealed that the return trip was no longer a geographical journey. You cant go home again,
because leaving home means leaving behind a

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NOSTALGIA: THE BITTERSWEET HISTORY

time in ones life; this understanding was one of

the pivotal links between homesickness and
longing for ones past. Originally coined as a
better name for longing for home, nostalgia was
then applied to longing for ones past. The
availability of the apt existing label homesickness for longing for home allowed for the uneasy distinction between the two constructs of
homesickness and longing for ones past. With
no existing label for longing for the past, nostalgia became used more often in reference to
longing for the past and less often to homesickness. Changes in lifestyle, family structure, and
childcare diminished the salience of homesickness and increased the importance of longing
for ones past. The present arguments do not
determine how greatly a construct can change
before it becomes a different entity entirely.
The proposition presented here is that homesickness and longing for ones past represent different, albeit related, constructs, and that both
have undergone transformations as a result of
changes in social and historical events as well as
by the application of labels and methods to
study them.
Conclusions
The analysis presented here illustrates the
difficulty of tracing a phenomenon through
history. As articulated by Starobinski (1966,
p. 81), the effort encounters the question of
method resulting from the interplay of emotions and language. The history of nostalgia
is more than a chronicle of changes in the
affective character of the complex experience.
The shifting referent for the term reflected the
struggle to understand the nature of the sentiment, its source, its significance, and determination of its adaptive or maladaptive character, correlates, and consequences. It is
beyond the scope of this article to decide the
philosophical issue of whether a psychological construct such as nostalgia can constitute
a natural entity. However, revisiting nostalgias past reminds us that how a construct is
defined, researched, and applied is influenced
by social-cultural events and norms as well as
by the dominant philosophical perspectives in
the scholarly disciplines. Disciplines are
driven not just by the search for truth and the
status of knowledge, but also by pressures of

173

financial support, practical need and popular

receptivity.
The coining of a medical label to designate
the longing for home transformed a normal
emotion into a disease, introducing undesirable connotations to a previously admired
sentiment. Whereas a confluence of warfare
and development of medical nosology contributed to the pathologizing of nostalgia, scientific advances that yielded no viable theory
of nostalgia as a physical disease ushered in
the first phase of the depathologizing of nostalgia. Interest shifted from physical medicine
to psychiatry and then to the psychoanalytic
movement, the new profession of clinical psychology and the discipline of psychology.
Theoretical and methodological developments in psychology advanced the psychoanalytical shift in referential meaning from
longing for home to longing for the past.
Constructs evolve via a dynamic interplay
between referential and connotative meanings.
Coined as a bitter emotion within a disease
model, nostalgia gained its sweet side within the
psychoanalytic framework, but the valence attributed to nostalgia varied as a function of
social forces. As with reversible images, one
can perceive a bitter or a sweet sentiment depending on contextual and discipline bias. And
as with such images, despite the difficulty of
perceiving both simultaneously, both components comprise the whole.
Richards (1989) suggested that the psychoanalytic perspective has remained relevant,
because it had incorporated certain principles
of science that have not yet been totally abandoned. One such principle, that of conflict, is
reflected in the bittersweet character of nostalgia. Longing for the past is particularly
relevant as people struggle for a sense of
continuity in a rapidly shifting landscape of
their personal and social lives. The possibility
of maximizing nostalgias therapeutic potential is appealing in a society anticipating a
future characterized by innovations beyond
current imagination. Half a century ago, Dag
Hammarskjold perceived no inherent conflict
between valuing the past and valuing the future: The intensity of a mans faith in life can
be gauged by his readiness to say yes to the
past and yes to the future (Hammarskjold,
1953/1972, p. 98). Perhaps exploring the
sweet side of nostalgia will promote the dis-

174

BATCHO

covery of better ways of helping individuals

say yes to both their past and their future.

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Received January 17, 2012
Revision received January 3, 2013
Accepted January 21, 2013