Nostalgia: from Disease to a Tonic

In November, I attended a reunion of the former employees of British American Tobacco, Poland. I had lived and worked in Warsaw between 1999 and 2002. Last month, I met many ex-colleagues after a gap of fifteen years. Men had become plumper, greyer, balder but easily recognisable. Girls, however, have a fantastic ability to not change. They were just slightly mature versions of those I had said goodbye to fifteen years ago.

We spent a delightful evening, which began with a film specially created using old photos, brands we sold and campaigns we ran. We recalled incidents and flashbulb memories from the good old days. In conversations, and later FB comments, the term ‘nostalgic’ was frequently used. In this week’s diary, I want to analyze what nostalgia is and why it makes us emotional.

Nostalgia a disease

Strangely, for centuries of its existence, the word nostalgia referred to a medical disease, a psychiatric disorder. In the 17^th century, Swiss mercenaries were often hired to serve in foreign armies. They possessed proven battlefield expertise. (Even today, the Pope and the Vatican are protected by the Swiss Guard). Young Swiss soldiers, stationed in Italy or France; on seeing a tree or terrain that reminded them of home; on hearing a familiar Swiss melody, often became ill. They complained of giddiness, high fever, pain in the chest or stomach, indigestion. In extreme cases, some of them died. A Swiss PhD student Johannes Hofer called it the Swiss illness (mal du Suisse) or Nostalgia. Nostalgia was coined by combining two Greek words ‘nostos’ (homecoming) and algos (pain). In English it can be loosely translated as ‘homesickness’.

We must remember that in the 17^th century, going abroad was very different from today. Swiss mercenaries who left for Italy or France took months to reach their foreign employers. They had no phones or Facetime. They knew or suspected they would never see their homeland again. That made their yearning for home unbearable. The only known “cure” was to return home, and many tried to, only to be punished by death for deserting.

For the next two centuries, nostalgia remained a disorder in medical parlance. Only in the last fifty years or so (in times of relative peace), research has begun to focus on its positive aspects.

Nostalgia versus homesickness

In modern times, nostalgia has a much broader meaning than homesickness. ‘Saudade’ is another word, in Portuguese, that represents a state of profound longing for an absent person or thing that one loves. It’s a beautiful but sad word, often implying that the object of longing would never return. It can be translated as missing-ness or emptiness, love that remains after someone/something is gone. The premature death of a close family member produces Saudade.  

Nostalgia, as understood in the 21^st century, refers no longer to a “physical”, but a ‘metaphorical’ home. If you imagine our ‘past’ to be a home that is different from our ‘present’, you will appreciate why we become so happy in revisiting the past. It’s time travel. The longer the distance (time gap), the more happiness this homecoming generates.

When I met my Polish friends/colleagues last month, all of us were transported back in time. I revisited my “home” that I had shared with them more than fifteen years ago.

Smell, taste, music, photo albums

Smell, taste and touch are capable of making us nostalgic. If you visit your school after 30 years, you may recall some smells you never experienced thereafter. Or you may unexpectedly eat something you haven’t tasted since your childhood. Taste and smell can make you nostalgic. However, mankind has still not managed to record those sensations. Our access to them is rare and accidental. We can’t run a Google search for a smell, nor send it to a friend on whatsApp. Which is not the case with music. Or photos. We can capture them, search for them or forward them. We can lose ourselves going through old B &W photo albums.

Music is known to be a powerful nostalgia producer. Research has shown that music heard during the age 12-22 leaves the strongest emotions within us.  Music is capable of re-creating a certain period of our life. For people my age from the English speaking world, the song ‘those were the days’ by Mary Hopkin may bring back their youth and romance. Its video clip is aptly black and white.

Television arrived in Bombay in 1972. The signature tune created by the sitar maestro Ravishankar represents the B&W television era in the minds of Bombay tele-viewers. A clip of a few seconds makes them nostalgic, hugely happy but also sad about the time to which they can no longer return.

I think distance in time, and distance in geography both matter. When I lived in Europe, some Indian songs made me deeply nostalgic, to the point of tears. The bhelpuri I ate in London or New York made me sentimental. When I hear the same song in India or eat bhelpuri in Bombay, they don’t have the same emotional impact. That is the reason emigrants always look for things from back home. In that, they are like the Swiss mercenaries. They no longer fall ill or die like the Swiss soldiers, because if desperate, they can always take a flight and visit home. 

The same can’t be done when you travel back in time, particularly revisit your distant past. When someone married thirty years ago looks at his wedding album, it brings back all related memories from that time. He is amazed at how young everyone looks. He looks with admiration at his hairy head in the photo. The pleasure is tinged with the pain of our inability to turn back the clock, of the good old days that will never come back.

Personal vs collective (historical) nostalgia

Your wedding album is essentially your personal nostalgia. It is unlikely to create the same emotions in a stranger. On the other hand, the Bombay TV signature tune or the Mary Hopkin song is a collective nostalgia. We share a common past with our friends from school, from university, from our workplace, with our fellow-citizens, and finally as global citizens. Now that we use smart phones, pictures of old phone instruments, typewriters, or heavy cameras make us nostalgic for things unlikely to make a comeback.

Facebook cleverly uses nostalgia for a commercial purpose. It focuses on both your personal nostalgia (We thought that you’d like to look back on this post from 10 years ago- FB) as well as the collective nostalgia (your year in review, please share with your friends-FB)

Political tool

It is believed ‘nostalgia’ is the reason Trump and Brexit have happened.

Older people who predominantly voted for them longed for the good old days, when America was great, and Britain was truly sovereign. The blue British passports didn’t have European Union on the cover.

Using the slogan “Make America Great Again,” Trump didn’t simply invoke the idea of an idealized past. He provoked the anxious feelings that make nostalgia especially attractive — and effective — as a tool of political persuasion.

Nostalgia often filters the bad memories out, leaving only the good moments that make us feel warm. BAT, Poland had its share of corporate politics, nasty bosses and unpleasant arguments. However, last month the bad blood from the past was forgotten. We mainly remembered the good times. (Those with overwhelmingly bad memories don’t turn up for nostalgic meetings).

In communist countries like Russia, many people have forgotten how bad life used to be: the queues, the shortages, and the paranoid police state. They now focus on the State support and zero inflation, the two positive things from Soviet days. One reason for Vladimir Putin to be in power for such a long time could be the nostalgic desire of the Russians to have stability, security and a superpower status like in the Soviet times.

Benefits of nostalgia

Recent research on the subject of nostalgia has pointed out many of its benefits.

a.      Gives an overall sense of enduring meaning to our life. By acting as continuity between past and present, it alleviates existential threat.

b.      Nostalgia generates positive effect, increases self-esteem, and fosters social connectedness.

c.       Counteracts against loneliness, boredom and anxiety.

d.      Makes people generous to strangers, more tolerant to outsiders.

e.      Couples feel closer and look happier when they share nostalgic memories.

f.        More than one research say nostalgia literally makes us feel warmer in cold days or in cold rooms. Nostalgia makes us more human.

g.      When the present is distressing, people often look to the past for support.

In short, in your cleaning drive, please don’t throw away old letters, photos, documents, particularly the handwritten stuff. All of them are capable of injecting a dose of nostalgia in you – it can act like a drug that produces euphoria.

Don’t lose an opportunity to meet friends from old times. Those reunions are bound to make you happy. If you are feeling miserable, if the weather is cold, listen to your favourite songs from your teens. Visit places from your childhood, go back to your school building, and meet your ex-colleagues several years after changing jobs. It’s a guaranteed recipe for feeling happy.

Ravi