What is nostalgia and what are its benefits? The meaning of the word “nostalgia” Why and at what moments nostalgia occurs.

Pleasant sadness? Despair? Euphoria? Anxiety? Or inspiration? What feelings are associated with the phenomenon of nostalgia?

There is no person in the world who has never once in his thoughts turned to the past memorable moments of his life in order to relive again and again the pleasant emotions associated with these events. Of course, these feelings are mixed with sadness that everything is in the past and will not return. In such cases we talk about a nostalgic mood.

Initially, nostalgia was understood as longing for one’s homeland, for home in situations where a person was forced to move somewhere. Then the meaning of the concept expanded. Nostalgia is the sadness associated with memories of past pleasant moments in life.

Nostalgia has been studied since ancient times. And the concept itself was introduced by Johann Hofer in 1688.

Scientists have found that nostalgic memories are not only about positive moments. Experienced negative situations may also be present in them. But in the present they no longer seem so scary and unpleasant. This happens due to the revaluation of values. What caused negative emotions will, over time, seem like a necessary life experience that influenced the development of one’s own personality.

Why and at what moments does nostalgia arise?

1. Loss of someone/something. A person experiences intense melancholy and in his thoughts strives to return to someone he loved or to something he possessed.
2. Changing of the living place. Moving to another country (change of citizenship, religion, culture, political regime), city or area of ​​residence seriously affects the psychological state. At certain moments in life, you want to be back in your homeland, in those places, in that environment, where everything was familiar and many pleasant emotions were experienced.
3. The desire to return to childhood. As you know, we experience the most powerful experiences in childhood. They play a significant role in shaping our personality and are remembered for a lifetime. When we experience fear or find ourselves in unfavorable situations, we can turn to childhood memories when we felt safe, happy and protected by our parents.
4. The desire to escape problems and responsibility. Mentally being in a place where there were fewer problems and worries than we have now is a natural desire of many people when faced with difficulties.
5. Nostalgia increases with age. The less bright and rich life begins to seem, the more sentimental a person becomes. In old age, many begin to feel that the past was more interesting and meaningful compared to the present, and mentally return to the events of their youth.

In general, nostalgia is a positive phenomenon. It helps you cope with difficult situations by providing nourishment from pleasant memories. The main thing is that a person does not “hang” for a long time in thoughts about the past and does not lose contact with the present. Complete withdrawal from reality, lack of desire to solve emerging problems and indifference to the environment - these are the alarming signals that indicate the need to fight nostalgia. The appeal to the once lived experience should be short-term. This is the value of the images and feelings reproduced in memory.

1. Experience the joy that this happened in your life.
2. Agree that this was an invaluable experience that influenced your achievements in the present.
3. Charge yourself with the energy of the happy you from the past, take three deep breaths and exits and act in the present!

Nostalgia... Such a simple word and so complex at the same time. Some people believe that nostalgia is simply pleasant memories of days gone by. For some, nostalgia is childhood, cloudless, carefree and so distant. A childhood that simply cannot be returned. Well, someone will call nostalgia just a state of mind that mourns what once was and what will never return.

Nostalgia...What could be simpler? But no, all these people are very wrong in their idea of ​​what nostalgia is. Nostalgia, literally translated from the ancient Greek language, is just memories of one’s father’s house, of one’s native land, which cause pain. Yes, yes, that’s the only way. There can be no talk of any love, any music or any books. You can't be nostalgic about them. Although it is precisely because of this mistake that is made all over the world that humanity still does not know exactly what nostalgia is.

According to scientists, the first nostalgic memories are present in Homer's Odyssey. But these memories, of course, were not called nostalgia. The term “nostalgia” was first used by the Swiss physician Johann Hoferom. This event took place in 1688. For a very long time, nostalgia was considered a mental illness. What kind of disease was this and who had it? It turns out that everything is quite simple. Nostalgia struck in those days soldiers and students who fought or studied far from their homeland. But as soon as they returned to their father’s house, the illness disappeared without a trace in just a few days. V.I. also writes about this concept as a disease. Dahl in his “Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language”.

But people became interested in nostalgia itself in the modern concept of this word only at the beginning of the last century. And it turned out that all people in the world are susceptible to nostalgia. For some, this pain from memories of the Motherland is stronger, for others it is weaker, but everyone has it. Of course, I don’t argue, many strong personalities simply buried these memories deep in their souls and never get them out of there and cherish them. And why? Yes, because they only bring pain. A lot of pain. And no matter how proud anyone is, everyone still has bouts of nostalgia. Every person who lives not in his own city, not in his own village, not on his own street and not in his own country.

Nostalgia... These are the streets that in the spring were simply fragrant with their blossoms and made your head spin from all this beauty. This is a boulevard, the only boulevard, with a fountain that has never worked, with recently planted birch trees and asphalt paths along which roller skates so dashingly skated. This is the square, with its night lanterns and the Obelisk, which glows from within every night like a beacon. These are old streets with two-story houses in which no one lives anymore and which are living out their last days. This is a river and a beach, and a bridge, and boats. This is a park with an eternal Ferris wheel, which has not been turned on for 5 years, and attractions that no one needs, because modern children play computer games and are of little interest to the life around them...

But all these memories are stored in a very distant corner of the soul and it is impossible to bring them out into the light of God, because something bad might happen - I’ll go home. To a city that has now become so alien and distant, and so dear and welcome...

Just two or three hundred years ago, it was considered a mental illness that primarily affected immigrants. What is nostalgia? This word, coming from the Greek language, precisely means “longing for the old life.” Seizures

crying, lack of appetite, irregular heart rhythm, insomnia or depression were all considered symptoms. However, recently psychologists from the University of Southampton discovered that stimulating nostalgia has a calming effect on people, improving their health and increasing self-esteem. It turned out that the desire to return to the past arises among people of all cultures and ages, and not only among immigrants.

Bridge of Time

Many people know what nostalgia is. Psychologists and anthropologists argue that this is a kind of bridge between the past and the current self-image. Longing for what was, enhances the positive perception of that period, and therefore the sense of continuity and meaning in life. The British believe that

nostalgia plays an important role in the lives of elderly lonely people - it is a kind of mechanism that compensates for loneliness. In addition, this phenomenon has other positive properties. Longing for the past, as a rule, is painted in light colors; it is very important for a person’s self-determination, for the internal integration of his “I”. It is people who know what nostalgia is that are more inclined to unite with others and provide them with social support. They cope better with problems. After all, remembering how good it was once (in childhood, in another country), a person strives to preserve and reproduce the best that connects him with his past life.

Source of creativity

In modern usage, the meaning of the word “nostalgia” has acquired a slightly different connotation. This is no longer so much a feeling of homesickness, but rather bright memories, tinged with a touch of sadness, about everything that was important and dear to a person. Carrying our memory into the past, we carefully preserve happy moments in our souls. They are the ones who give strength and courage in real life, in the present. Nostalgia for childhood is not at all a desire to become carefree and irresponsible again. It’s just that for many of us, the world was playing with all its colors back then and was perceived as extremely bright and optimistic. This can be seen especially clearly in memoirs. However, reminiscences from the past are constantly found on the pages of great works. After all, characters, plots, and artistic details are often creatively processed experiences of the author, his impressions and memories. It is also characteristic that a nostalgic person unwittingly embellishes the past. After all, it is not so much situations or images that are etched into memory, but rather the feelings that they evoked in us.

What is nostalgia?

1. headache
2. A person’s very strong longing for the place where he was born.
3. This is sadness, sadness.
4. remembering the saddest moments of life
5. When you remember with longing the happy moments of life, usually from childhood, which cannot be returned.
6. Pleasant memories.
7. Nostalgia is longing for the Motherland.
8. This is longing for the homeland or the past.
9. Nostalgia is longing for the Motherland, in everyday meaning it is longing for the past. A person experiences nostalgia when he is abroad, in another country. A large number of poems written by poets abroad are devoted to nostalgia. A person who has graduated from school may experience a feeling of nostalgia for school. Many people feel nostalgic when looking through old photo albums.

   The older generations will leave behind vague outlines in old photographs, we will leave behind rich video clips, but the pain of moving into the past will be exactly the same. (Elena Ermolova)

   Homer's epic was the first description of nostalgia. But this term was invented in 1688 by the Swiss doctor I. Hofer. However, for a long time the term was considered a disease. Only from the beginning of the 20th century did sciences such as sociology, philosophy and psychology become interested in it. In the 1920s, a student of Bergson came up with the dilemma of social causation and highlighted the thesis that our memories are an improvement in the experience of mankind.

   It follows that even nostalgic memories do not exactly reproduce past life events one hundred percent, but include the assessments and mistakes of the person who remembers. This is the paradox of nostalgia: we yearn even for the most terrible periods of our lives.

   The aesthetic meaning of nostalgia is that moral decisions must be made by a person; E. Novikov classified it as a type of moral reflection, but believes that its consequences are ambiguous. Listening in general to E. Novikov, nostalgia is a positive role in the life of every person and his society: the connection with the early stages of life becomes stronger and roots, the past and present reconcile in the public consciousness, breaks down barriers between people and much more.

   Nostalgia is like sclerosis: we remember a very, very good moment in life, completely forgetting all the bad that surrounded this moment. (Vladimir Borisov)

10. Nostalgia - longing for one's homeland, home or past. Probably the first written description of nostalgic experiences is contained in Homer's epic Odysseus. However, the term itself was invented by the Swiss physician Johann Hofer in 1688.
11. sadness
12. melancholy memories of the past!)
13. Nostalgia (from the Greek nostos return and algos pain) is longing for one’s homeland, for one’s home; longing for something lost, gone.
14. sadness or pain. Thus, to the question: “Nostalgia - what is it? “- the answer is simple: it’s longing for home, homeland. In some dictionaries you may see the meaning of this word as "clinical condition". Why? The fact is that the very concept of “nostalgia” (what it is and in relation to whom to use it) changed significantly during the development of psychiatry and the formation of psychology. This concept was first used by the doctor J. Hofer. In his writings, he spoke of Swiss soldiers serving as mercenaries in other countries and students studying away from home. Sick soldiers and students recovered soon after returning to their native lands. The doctor identified three stages in the development of the disease
15. “Nostalgia, longing not for home, but longing for oneself! " (With)

    Most often, there is sadness about the irrevocable and a reverent attachment to what reminds of it...

• Nostalgia (from ancient Greek νόστος - “return to the homeland” and άλγος “pain”) - longing for one’s homeland, for one’s home.

  Probably the first written description of nostalgic experiences is contained in Homer's epic The Odyssey. However, the term itself was invented by the Swiss physician Johann Hofer in 1688. For a long time, nostalgia was considered a disease (this is how it is interpreted in V. I. Dahl’s “Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language”). Philosophy, psychology and sociology became interested in nostalgia only in the first half of the 20th century. Developing the ideas of Henri Bergson, Emile Durkheim's student Maurice Halbwachs in the 1920s posed the problem of the social conditioning of memory and put forward the thesis that memories are not a reproduction, but a reconstruction of a person's previous experience. It follows from this that memories, including nostalgic ones, do not exactly reproduce the course of past events, but include subjective assessments and errors of the one who remembers. This is the paradox of nostalgia: people even yearn for terrible periods of the past.

  The question of which events are better remembered: those associated with positive or negative emotions is debatable. P.P. Blonsky in his work “Memory and Thinking” came to the conclusion that the unpleasant is remembered the longest. Most other authors came to the opposite conclusions. Thus, a study of a specific type of memory conducted by V.V. Nurkova showed that “in a neutral situation of life memories, preference is given to positive events, which reflects the individual selectivity of autobiographical memory (the exception is only two out of 60 people).”

  E.V. Novikov, studying the attitude towards nostalgia in various cultures and in the history of philosophy, came to the conclusion that, with some exceptions, nostalgia is assessed positively in them. According to A. A. Guseinov, “many of the great moralists drew ideals from the past, believing that there remained a golden age there. According to their ideas, humanity is moving backwards. They saw the main sign of degradation in the fact that people are increasingly giving preference to material interests over moral duties. They sought to stop the destructive, from their point of view, process of confusion of criteria.”

  Speaking about the ethical meaning of nostalgia, about its role in a person’s making moral decisions, E. V. Novikov classifies it as a type of moral reflection, but believes that, contrary to popular belief, the moral consequences of nostalgia are ambiguous. For example, Karl Jaspers described cases of murder of children by young provincial nannies who got rid of their charges in the hope that after this they would be able to return to their homeland, since there would be no one to babysit.

  In general, according to E.V. Novikov, nostalgia plays a positive role in the life of a person and society: it contributes to the affirmation of the identity of a person’s “I”, strengthens the connection with the early stages of his life, with his “roots”, forms moral ideals, preserves the moral values ​​of the past and ensures the continuity of traditions, “reconciles” the past with the present in the public consciousness, stabilizes relations between opponents in a dispute (“making them related” to each other through a common past), “breaks” communication barriers between people, and so on.