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The Nature of Nostalgia

Zachary Boren
Memories are made of thisZachary Boren visits and interprets the nature of longing for the past, with a little
help from Freud, Geahchan and the Sims signature tune.
An elderly man, tall and thin and angular, sits in a restaurant of red velvet. He lifts his head and watches the waiter, a
red-haired teenager on roller-skates, bring his food. He looks sceptically at the dish. He is the food critic, with the power
to make or break this establishment, yet he has been given a plate of ratatouille, a peasants dish. He lifts the fork to his
mouth, thin slices of zucchini and tomato at its end. As he delicately places the food on his tongue he is instantaneously
moved to another time, to another place. He is no longer surrounded by garish curtains, or listening to the mumblings of
the other patrons. He sits at the wooden dinner table of his childhood, quietly crying because he scraped his knee. His
mother knows exactly what he needs; she brings him a plate of ratatouille. How wonderful the boy feels, eating like this.
Its as though the food and his mothers love have made better his injury. He closes his eyes to enjoy his meal. And he is
back in the restaurant, in a deep reverie. He drops his fork. What was that? The texture, the aroma, the taste. What
Anton Ego, the antagonist of Pixars spectacular Ratatouille felt was nostalgia, a beautifully complicated emotion. At
once, he experiences joy and sorrow, hope and regret.
The word nostalgia comes from Homer and his Odyssey, and its parts mean homecoming and pain, ache. In the
modern age, nostalgia is recognized as a yearning for something or sometime past, often for ones childhood. In
psychoanalysis, nostalgia is considered not only as a longing for the past, but a longing for an idealized past, for a
moment that never actually existed. The screen memory, as Freud conceived, is a combination of many dierent
memories; an inaccurate account of the past in which feelings are included or overlooked after the fact. (I will explore
this concept in greater detail later). It is for these screen memories that we long, these idealized moments that we recall,
when we hear or smell or taste something that reminds us of another time. It is our sense of smell that most often
triggers a feeling of nostalgia: Anatomically, the nose directly connects with the olfactory lobe in the limbic system
that area of the brain considered the seat of the emotions. The olfactory lobe is actually part and parcel of the limbic
system (MacLean, 1973). The noses ability to awaken emotional memories is called olfactory-evoked recall.
Interestingly, smell is first sense that newborns develop. Nostalgia is triggered physiologically but, as a psychological
phenomenon, its meaning is far more significant and it comes from how it relates to our identity and how we maintain
congruity between our current and past concept of ourselves (www.edge-online.com)

nostalgia 1

Nostalgia, a concept for which memory is at the heart, is triggered by an evocation of something we recognize from our
past. We must consider, however, that this moment or feeling that we recall may, in fact, be airbrushed or fictionalized by
our memory. Alan Hirsch (1992) wrote: During the analysis of the transference neurosis, the patients earliest memory
undergoes changes and divides into multiple components that are separate, definable childhood memories. Freud even
theorized that memories of childhood are instead memories of memories, that the memorys emotional agenda has
distorted our impression of the past, and coloured our experiences: It may indeed be questioned whether we have any
memories at all from our childhood: memories relating to our childhood may be all that we possess. Our childhood
memories show us our earliest years not as they were but as they appeared at the later periods when the memories
were aroused. In these periods of arousal, the childhood memories did not, as people are accustomed to say, emerge;
they were formed at that time. And a number of motives, with no concern for historical accuracy, had a part in forming
them, as well as in the selection of the memories themselves (Freud, 1899:322). These screen memories, as he named
them, concern the operation of memory and its distortions, the importance and raison detre of phantasies, the
amnesia covering our early years (ibid:301). Freuds screen memories lend credence to the notion that nostalgia is often
a psychological defence, that it derives from falsehoods and uses these misinterpretations of the past as the foundation
for future behaviours.
How and why nostalgia is triggered is key to understanding its purpose and consequence. The feeling of nostalgia is
given life by symbols, by an object or a feeling, or something that represents a moment past. These symbols are a
reminder of the linearity of time, and they signify something that cannot be recaptured, something familiar and safe.
These symbols represent transition.
Melanie Klein wrote (Spillius, 1988): The symbols are also created in the internal world as a means of restoring,
recreating, recapturing and owning again the original objects The capacity to experience loss and the wish to recreate
the object within oneself gives the individual the unconscious freedom in the use of symbols. And this is the crux of
nostalgia as a feeling; a recognition of absence. What was once had or felt is no longer. These symbols both remind us
of what we have lost and provide us with a moment that we have once again.
Professor Morris Holbrook (2003) explained why certain symbols are chosen: We believe that there is a critical period,
analogous to imprinting in a baby chick, during which we tend to form strong preferences for whatever objects we
frequently encounter say, music, movies, celebrities, clothing styles, automobile designs, or whatever. That our
attachments to objects of nostalgic significance are determined in our formative years, from childhood to early
adulthood, is a worthy observation. As such, these objects suggest a return to the safety of home. Hirsch (1992)
concluded that the idealized emotional state is framed within a past era, and the yearning for the idealized emotional
state manifests as an attempt to recreate that past era by reproducing activities performed then and by using symbolic

representations of the past. Idealized past emotions become displaced on to inanimate objects, sounds, smells and
tastes that were experienced concurrently with the emotions.
What does it mean that we experience nostalgia? Do we remember or do we long for or do we actively pursue our past?
Of course there is a variety of reasons for and consequences of this phenomenon. For many, nostalgia is a wonderful
feeling, a combination of joy of what once was and a twinge of regret that it is no longer. That is healthy nostalgia. There
is also a pathological manifestation of the emotion, a compulsion to recapture that feeling long lost. This nostalgia, as
Hirsch wrote, may be viewed in psychiatric terms as a driving force for actual behavior (Hirsch, 1992). Nostalgia, for
instance, can drive abused children to marry abusive partners because they long for the familiar and yearn for the past,
even if it was unhappy.
Herein lies the destruction of the unreliable memory, the idealization of the past. In these instances, in which one tries to
recreate the environment of ones youth, nostalgia is less likely to be recognized as such. Nostalgia manifests
unconsciously. One may understand that their abusive childhood was unhappy, but, because memory rewrites the past
and reinterprets feelings, one still attempts to reconnect and relive the past. Those with a troubled past and/or present
are more likely to engage with this destructive nostalgia, perhaps unconsciously seeking to understand.
James Phillips (1985:70) outlined three levels of nostalgia in psychoanalysis: That of the mother as the repressed and
unconscious object of nostalgia, that of the ego-ideal, a personality based on internalization and that of the transitional
object and language. The first, yearning for that original oneness with the mother, is the base principle of almost all
manifestations of nostalgia. In both the womb and in early infancy, the child has a symbiotic relationship with the
mother, one that can never be replicated. Separation, however, is inevitable and absence follows suit. Phillips explains:
The transitional object concrete, unarticulated, preverbal and embodying for the infants the lost state of oneness
with the mother may be thought of as the earliest precursor of nostalgia (ibid). This nostalgia is inherent to the human
condition. We are all designed to experience it, and find ways to compensate for it.
nostalgia 2

Of the ego-ideal, internalized nostalgia, French analyst Dominique Geahchan (1968) investigated: The nostalgic object
thus represents a narcissistic structure of the personality. The nostalgic cannot relinquish his search for the lost object
because that would represent giving up his own narcissistically invested, grandiose self-image. It is now not simply the
absent, repressed mother who is nostalgically longed for, but rather the mother as internalized into a personality
structure.
This internalized idealization is problematic. The nostalgic projects his narcissistic ideal on to others; everything and
everyone must compensate for the ineable absence. Of course such perfection is impossible and invariably the ideal

for which the nostalgic strives is not met. Instead of recognizing his unrealistic expectations, he pursues this ideal with
even greater vigour. The original absence of the mother has left a narcissistic wound too large and it has been left
unaddressed for too long. Nostalgia has thus become an eective narcissistic defence. The nostalgic sentimentalizes
the past; it is no longer real, it is inflated. Think of the good old days reminiscing by so many old timers in film and TV.
Everything, once so great, is now so terrible. He thinks, I am the ideal, and it is the world and everyone else in it that
prevents my happiness.
Furthermore, for the narcissist, the idealized past can be reclaimed through objects. The symbols mentioned earlier are
collected as a way of reclaiming the mother, owning the ideal. Geahchan wrote of internalized nostalgia: It oers an
illustration of the birth of symbols and language. The struggle over the absence of the real mother is shifted into a
symbolic order and on two levels, that of the concrete object, and that of words. The mother, absent in reality can now
be made to be symbolically present (Geachan, 1968). The narcissistic nostalgic struggles to reconcile the real with the
ideal because reality demonstrates that what he longs for no longer exists, that it may never have done. Reality
demands that he sever his destructive nostalgic attachment, something that can prove impossible. Freud wrote: This
opposition can be so intense that a turning away from reality takes place and a clinging to the object through the
medium of a wishful psychosis(Freud, 1918:244) . This is touched on in The Sopranos in which Tony, the boss of his
mafia family, comes to realize through therapy, that his idealized childhood was unhappy and his parents were, and are,
toxic. In this instance, nostalgia shows the ability to induce a sort of madness. Hilary Dickinson and Michael Erben
(2006) elaborated: A particular problem of attachment formation outlined by Freud is the narcissistic reaction; and this
will be shown to be relevant to some expressions of nostalgia The early, all consuming, love for the self and for the
mother figure are transmuted into adult attachments and to a range of love objects. It may happen, however, that a
person will remain more or less fixed in the narcissistic phase and continues to seek his or her self as a love object.
The nostalgia Ive just explored, pathological and psychologically destructive, manifests unconsciously. There is another
type, the one that most everyone recognizes as nostalgia, and it manifests consciously. Basically, to identify this feeling
of longing limits the emotions negative capability. To feel such a way, to yearn for a moment lost, and not understand
what, or why, is what drives defensive and regressive behaviour. Dickinson and Erben (2006) wrote: Nostalgic thoughts
mourn a loss but they also include acceptance of the loss, and it is that acceptance that makes possible a pleasurable
feeling along with an out-rush of regret. It is acceptance that separates healthy from unhealthy nostalgia, the ability to
move on.
nostalgia 3

Nostalgia can be beautiful, even transcendent. It can be an expression of joy for life lived. This is my experience of it.
Sometimes I feel a tickle, an itch I want scratched. I wish to feel as I had done when I was younger when things were
simple and new. I turn on this song (The Sims signature tune) and for a moment I return to a ritual from my childhood,

playing the first The Sims on my archaic Packard Bell. Its not the building of a house that I really recall, nor decorating
it with silly items listed under miscellaneous. I remember joy, less inhibited and more unadulterated. I dont remember a
moment; I remember a state of being. Things so familiar now were once so fresh and exciting and incredible. Only when
I remember young me, who believed in good and evil, and who didnt like the texture of mushrooms, do I realize how
complicated life has become. So I listen to Supertramp, or I eat Tevall vegetarian sausages, or I play Final Fantasy VII, or
I smell my old copy of Goodnight Moon. Through these objects I connect with my past, who I was then, who my parents
were then. I dont want to live there, but I need to revisit it from time to time.
Data accumulated by Tim Wildschut (2006) suggest that those who engage with positive nostalgia exhibit higher selfesteem and greater satisfaction for their present life. Wildschuts studies indicate that healthy nostalgics tend to see
their past as positive, they are less prone to depression and are better at coping with problems. These findings reinforce
what I have theorized about conscious and unconscious nostalgia; those who recognize the feeling and who can accept
the past as past, will benefit from engaging with the experiences which have shaped their development. As expected,
emotional honesty is easier when your formative years are happy. Loyola psychologist Fred Bryant (2006) advocates the
positivity of nostalgia: Reminiscence can motivate you, it can give you a sense of being rooted, a sense of meaning and
purposeinstead of being blown around by the whims of everyday life.
Nostalgia, like grief and mourning, is a reaction to loss. How it manifests is determined by what was lost and by how life
is after the fact. People are designed to experience nostalgia; it is an expression of the passing of time, of where we
come from and where we are now. The moment that we lose that extraordinary intimacy with our mother sets us up for a
lifetime of loss and change. Nostalgia can keep us grounded whilst we move forward, or it can keep us trapped in a past
we must unravel before we can grow.

Zachary Boren has written for various journals and magazines including The Independent, Press
Association and Variety. He has written several film reviews for Contemporary Psychotherapy.
References
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development of hindsight bias. In L. J. Sanna & E. C. Chang (Eds.), Judgments over time: The interplay of thoughts,
feelings, and behaviors (pp. 230-250). New York: Oxford University Press.
Dickinson, H. & Erben, M (2006) Nostalgia and Autobiography: The Past in the Present
http://www.scribd.com/doc/24479798/Nostalgia-and-autobiography-the-past-in-the-present retrieved March 2013
Freud, S. (1899) Screen Memories in The Standard Edition of The Complete Works of Sigmund Freud Volume 3 London:
The Hogarth Press
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Hogarth Press
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On Edge Online (2012)The Psychology of Nostalgia http://www.edge-online.com/features/psychology-nostalgia/
retrieved March 2013
Phillips, James (1985) Distance, Absence, and Nostalgia in Descriptions ed. Don Ihde Albany, NY: Suny Press
Sims signature tune on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=399YneFTwh0 retrieved March 2013
Spillius, E.B ed (1988) Melanie Klein Today 1: Mainly Theory New Library of Psychoanalysis, Routledge
Wildschut, T (2006) Nostalgia: Content, Triggers, Functions Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(5), 975-993
Image: Nostalgia by marc e marc