The stories tend to feature the self as the protagonist surrounded by close friends. The topics are universal - reminiscences about friends and family members, holidays, weddings, songs, sunsets, lakes. “The defining features of nostalgia in England are also the defining features in Africa and South America,” Dr. Sedikides, Tim Wildschut and other psychologists at Southampton began studying nostalgia, they found it to be common around the world, including in children as young as 7 (who look back fondly on birthdays and vacations). In the 19th and 20th centuries nostalgia was variously classified as an “immigrant psychosis,” a form of “melancholia” and a “mentally repressive compulsive disorder” among other pathologies. It’s not just for those away from home, and it’s not a sickness, despite its historical reputation. Sedikides emphasizes that nostalgia is not the same as homesickness. He considers the first great nostalgist to be Odysseus, an itinerant who used memories of his family and home to get through hard times, but Dr. “Nostalgia makes us a bit more human,” Dr. When people speak wistfully of the past, they typically become more optimistic and inspired about the future. Nostalgia does have its painful side - it’s a bittersweet emotion - but the net effect is to make life seem more meaningful and death less frightening. On cold days, or in cold rooms, people use nostalgia to literally feel warmer. Couples feel closer and look happier when they’re sharing nostalgic memories. It makes people more generous to strangers and more tolerant of outsiders. Nostalgia has been shown to counteract loneliness, boredom and anxiety. After a decade of study, nostalgia isn’t what it used to be - it’s looking a lot better. That lunch in 1999 inspired him to pioneer a field that today includes dozens of researchers around the world using tools developed at his social-psychology laboratory, including a questionnaire called the Southampton Nostalgia Scale. The colleague remained skeptical, but ultimately Dr.

Memories bring back you